
Class. 

Book._ 

Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 
AND CHILD LABOR 



COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE 
AND CHILD LABOR 



A STUDY OF THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF REG- 
ULATIONS COMPELLING ATTENDANCE AND LIMITING THE 
LABOR OF CHILDREN IN A SELECTED GROUP OF STATES 



BY 
FOREST CHESTER ENSIGN 



THE ATHENS PRESS 

IOWA CITY, IOWA 






Copyright, 1921 
By Forest C. Ensign 



Published June, 1921 



mi 2/ \m 



©CI.A617484 



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CONTENTS 

Page 
INTRODUCTION X 

CHAPTER I 

ENGLISH FOUNDATIONS 

Principles common to American state school systems— Compulsion 
almost universal— Fundamental conceptions of child control extend 
to early English customs and laws — Significance of laws of Edward 
HI — Connection between freedom and pauperism — Statute of 
Labourers— Beginning of compulsory employment— Movement from 
country to town— All children of poor to engage in labor— Attend- 
ance at school an alternative— Gradual development of taxation for 
care of poor— Industrial training of poor children compulsory- 
Machinery of Church employed in providing funds— Poor laws of 
Henry VIII— Development under Elizabeth— Final steps— Enforce- 
ment of compulsory employment and industrial training — Literary 
education in time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth— Principles estab- 
lished by 1600 7 

CHAPTER II 

THE COLONIAL PERIOD 

Expansion of English educational traditions in America— Settlers 
around Massachusetts Bay— Granted all rights of other English 
subjects— A select group— Not free from poverty and crime— 
English ^customs ianjia ws contro lling — Desire to utilize labor of 
children— Compulsory employment in 1641— The law of 1642, com- 
pulsory employment and compulsory education— English poor-laws 
duplicated— The law of 1647, compulsory schools— Support of early 
schools — Falling standards — Education in Connecticut — Connecticut 
code of 1700— Revision of 1701— Economic prosperity— Educational 
provisions not enforced ■*■' 

CHAPTER III 

EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD 
Close of first and opening of second period in history of employ- 
ment and education of children — Compulsory education not stressed 
in early state constitutions— Educational systems resting on early 
laws for control of poor — New use for children in England — In- 
dustrial conditions in America — Hamilton's ideals for employment 



ri CONTENTS 

Page 
of children — Care of mill children — Samuel Slater's Sunday school — 
Development of factories — New industrial opportunities for children 
— David Humphreys and the education of mill children — The Con- 
necticut law of 1813 — Organized labor begins to be felt — Industrial- 
educational problems in Massachusetts — Legislative investigation of 
1825 — Antagonism of employer and laborer — Investigation by New 
England Association of farmers, mechanics and other working men 
— James G. Carter and legislative investigating committee — The 
child labor law of 1836 — Charity idea in education — Organized labor 
and education in Pennsylvania — Place of pauper school in Pennsyl- 
vania — Organized labor and education in New York — New forces . 30 

CHAPTER IV 

MASSACHUSETTS 
The State Board of Education — Horace Mann its first secretary — 
Educational conditions met by Mann — Mann not especially interest- 
ed in factory children — Operation of law of 1836 — Mann not an 
advocate of compulsory school attendance — Inadequacy of means 
of education — Local school committees directed to enforce attend- 
ance requirements, 1842 — Inadequacy of educational statistics — 
Enactment of truancy law, 1850 — First general compulsory attend- 
ance law, 1852 — Failure to enforce law of 1852 — Mann's successor 
in office — Towns required to provide for care of truants and de- 
linquents, 1862 — Towns fail to meet responsibility — State funds 
withheld — Legislative investigation, 1866 — Law of 1866 — Eevision 
of 1867 — Henry K. Oliver special enforcing officer — Difficulties of 
enforcement — Creation of bureau of statistics and labor — Movement 
for a ten-hour day — Compulsory attendance requirements met in 
evening schools — Further legislation for control of truancy — Lack 
of harmony between labor and attendance laws — Carrol D. Wright 
becomes chief of bureau of labor statistics, 1874 — His attitude to- 
wards law enforcement — Larger state powers in law enforcement — 
Child labor act of 1878 — More adequate employment certificate, 1888 
— Additional restrictions on employment of children — Poverty no 
longer grounds for exemption from school attendance — Employment 
and school attendance investigated by state board of education — 
Legislation following board's investigation — A period of consolida- 
tion of legislative gains — Compulsory medical inspection of schools, 
first in United States — Interest in industrial education — Inquiry of 
1906 — Eecommendations of the commission, and legislation follow- 
ing — Beorganization of state board of education — Part-time classes 
and continuation schools — Compulsory attendance optional with 
local school committees — State board of labor and industries 
created, 1912 — Echoes of early approval of child labor — Eecent 
changes in regulations — Contribution of Massachusetts .... 48 



CONTENTS vii 

CHAPTER V 

CONNECTICUT 

Page 
Leads in state enforcement of attendance and labor laws — Earlier 
periods not unlike Massachusetts — Organized labor not so important 
a factor in later development — Henry Barnard's educational leader- 
ship — Law of 1842 — Period of weak state organization — Legislative 
investigation of 1844 — Advance toward state control, 1845 — Eeturn 
of Henry Barnard — His attitude toward child labor — Restrictions 
on employment, 1 855— Civil War checks educational progress — State 
Board of Education created, 1865 — Truant law, 1865 — Significance 
of law of 1869 — Henry M. Cleveland state enforcing agent — Agita- 
tion for general compulsory attendance law — Enactment of com- 
pulsory law, 1872 — Giles Potter becomes state agent — Methods of 
enforcement — More adequate laws — Act of 1886 — Larger manufac- 
turers cooperating — Inadequate schooling certificate — Unsatisfactory 
attendance — Laws of 1893 and 1895 — Relatively high rank of state 
in educational requirements — Cooperation of teachers in law en- 
forcement — System rounded out in acts of 1911 and 1913 — Inter- 
pretation of the state board — Attendance — School census — Employ- 
ment certificate — Present enforcement — The unemployed child — 
Recognition of relationship between child employment and school 
attendance 87 

CHAPTER VI 

NEW YORK 
Compulsory education in poor-houses, 1831 — Delay in development 
of public school system — Early attitude toward employment of 
children — Legislative investigation of 1830 — Attempts to secure 
legislation — Truancy law of 1853 — Compulsory attendance act of 
1874 — Failure to enforce — Increase of child labor and investigation 
of 1884 — Elbridge T Gerry and influence of philanthropic forces — 
Child labor act of 1886— Weakness of law of 1886— Granting of 
working papers entrusted to local boards of health — Report of the 
Reinhardt commission — Mercantile law, 1896 — Enforcement by local 
boards of health — Compulsory attendance act, 1894 — Administration 
of attendance law — Closer union of forces opposed to labor of 
children — Organization and early activity of New York Child Labor 
Committee — Legislation of 1903 — Advanced position of New York 
state — Difficulties in law enforcement — Political aspects — Advances 
of ]907, 1908 — Enforcement — Failure of school officials to co- 
operate — Failure of school and employment officials to cooperate — 
A period of consolidation — Permanent census — Factory investigat- 
ing commission — Reorganization of department of labor — More 
efficient child labor regulations — The Industrial Commission — 



viii CONTENTS 

Page 
General permanent census law — Compulsory military and physical 
education — Compulsory evening arid continuation schools — Summary 
of regulations concerning education and employment of children — 
Enforcement in New York City — The attendance bureau — Enforce- 
ment in state as a whole — Progress towards state supervision of 
attendance 115 

CHAPTER VII 

PENNSYLVANIA 
Among last of northern states to provide for compulsory education 
and to restrict employment — Fight for free schools — The pauper 
school law — Opposition to free schools by German element — Early 
discussion of non-attendance — Legislative investigation of child 
labor, 1837 — Child labor law of 1848 — Failure to enforce — Superin- 
tendent Wiekersham slow to favor compulsory attendance — Great 
number of children out of school — Child labor law of 1887 — Agita- 
tion for compulsory school attendance — Attendance law of 1895 — 
Further restrictions of child labor — Compulsory attendance law of 
1901 — Inadequacy of restrictions on child labor — National and State 
Child Labor Committees enter field in 1904 — Law of 1905 — Law de- 
clared unconstitutional — Eeturn to old conditions — Legislation of 
1909, result of union of all forces opposed to child labor — Interests 
of labor and education served in new legislation — Kevised code — 
Creation of state board of education — Provision made for vocation- 
al education — Department of labor and industry created — Measures 
of 1915 rounding out system of industrial education — Adequate child 
labor legislation — Compulsory continuation schools established — 
Success of continuation education — Operation of system in city of 
Pittsburgh — Beginning of state enforcement of attendance — New 
system growing in favor throughout the state 170 

CHAPTER VIII 

WISCONSIN 
Wisconsin most successful in adapting education to changing in- 
dustrial conditions — Establishment of education under constitution 
— School officials disturbed by poor attendance — Compulsory attend- 
ance laws feared — Attempt to secure compulsory law — Investiga- 
tion authorized — Argument against compulsory measures — Law en- 
acted, 1879 — Child labor legislation, 1877 — Creation of bureau of 
labor statistics — Factory inspection undertaken, 1885 — Bennet com- 
pulsory school and attendance law — Opponents of Bennet law enter 
politics — Eepeal of law, 1891 — Decade of inactivity — Investigation 
of child labor situation — More adequate attendance legislation — 
Further restriction of employment — Movement toward industrial 



c 



CONTENTS ix 

Page 
education — Special commission to study needs — System of industrial 
education established — Organization — The continuation schools — 
Apprenticeship system — Work of Industrial Commission — Present 
provisions of child labor laws — Enforcement — Operation in Mil- 
waukee — Attempt at state supervision of attendance — Service per- 
formed by Wisconsin 203 

CHAPTER IX 

SUMMAEY AND CONCLUSION 
Legislative investigations as basis of compulsory measures — 
Changes in attitude toward child — Prime movers for protection of 
children — Some of the retarding influences — Exemption from re- 
quirements of attendance laws — Compulsory health provisions — 
Working papers — Direct state enforcement — Federal cooperation — 
Penalties — Decrease in illiteracy — Part-time schools — Outlook — Ad- 
vance from early English foundations 231 

BIBLIOGEAPHY 256 



INTRODUCTION 

Our national experiences during the years 1917-20 have 
served to emphasize the importance of education. It was found 
that in the emergencies of war the man with developed mind 
and skilled hand, the man whom the schools had trained, 
could adjust himself readily to new requirements. In factory 
and laboratory, in camp and on the battlefield, he demonstrated 
his superiority over those whose opportunity for systematic 
training had been narrowly restricted or altogether lacking. 
It was also found that a dangerously large proportion of our 
young men had arrived at maturity with so little learning as 
to make it necessary to classify them, for army purposes, as 
illiterate. 

The federal census, loosely taken and inaccurate as it is ad- 
mitted to be, shows that seven of every one hundred of the 
population above ten years of age are absolutely illiterate, un- 
able to write their names or read the simplest print. 1 The 
report of the Surgeon-General of the United States Army, 
based upon an examination of the selected body of men con- 
stituting the draft army, is still more disquieting, showing as 
it does that one man out of every four is unable to read and 
write in English. 2 Some comfort can be derived from the 
fact that of those classified as illiterates, 14.2 per cent are 
negroes and a considerable proportion of the remainder for- 
eign born. But at the best, the conditions revealed are serious, 



1.. United States Census, 1910. For comparative table see Monroe, 
Cyclopedia of Education, " Illiteracy. ' ' 

2. Education of Illiterates ; Hearing before the Committee on Education, 
House of Bepresentatives, Feb. 14-15, 1919; pp. 25-26. The report covers 
the examination of more than one and one-half million men, in twenty-eight 
training stations widely distributed throughout the country. All men not 
able to "read and understand newspapers and write letters home, ,, a total 
of 24.9 per cent, were classed as illiterate. The War Department, com- 
menting upon the results of the examinations, says: ''The extent of illit- 
eracy among the drafted men is a striking fact. The figures, however, are 
not an exact measure of the fact. It is obvious that without a more definite 
measure of illiteracy .... any detailed statements are impossible; it is 
equally obvious that these measures, though rough and varied, do indicate 
general conditions of serious public concern.' ' 



2 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

and have brought deserved criticism upon systems of educa- 
tion which, in the final analysis, must be held responsible. 

Every state in the Union has established a more or less 
elaborate system of free public education. Nearly all have 
enacted laws requiring children to attend school for various 
periods, but it is commonly recognized that in by far the larger 
proportion of states the so-called compulsory education laws, 
usually administered by local officials, are at best only partially 
enforced. Yet the revelations of the draft came as a distinct 
shock to the people at large who cherished the belief that no- 
where else in the world could be found a citizenship with a 
higher level of intelligence and enlightenment. It may be 
assumed, then, that against illiteracy there will be waged 
systematic warfare, a warfare in the interests of democratic 
government, waged by a people conscious of the necessity to 
win, aware that only through compulsory measures can the 
masses be saved from ignorance. 

Since the war has revealed, also, a serious lack of skilled 
workmen, of those prepared to undertake the specific tasks, 
mechanical and scientific, which the occasion demanded, it 
may be assumed that all phases of vocational education will 
receive attention, that continuation schools for workers will 
be established, that the labor of youth will be more severely re- 
stricted and that attendance upon the means of education will 
be enforced under state or even national authority. But old 
customs and old machinery of administration cannot be swept 
away and a new order created. That which the future is to 
accomplish must be built upon the foundations already laid 
in the experiences of the past. 

The history of the compulsory education of children and 
the regulation of their employment in the United States may 
be divided roughly into three periods. Through the first period 
there extended the colonial conception of education. The 
children of the poor were conceded the rudiments of learning, 
but labor was regarded as altogether desirable and both its 
moral and economic values were stressed. During the latter 
part of the period, in the second and third decades of the 
nineteenth century, while the value and necessity of child labor 
remained unquestioned, save by the relatively feeble organiza- 



INTRODUCTION 3 

tions of working men, there was a growing agitation for 
such a limitation of employment as would enable children to 
acquire the elementary education to which all, theoretically, 
believed them entitled. The second period begins toward the 
middle of the nineteenth century, when various forces began 
to recognize their common interest in the child and to unite 
in seeking to secure for him certain rights through legislation. 
There followed half-hearted measures, emasculated by those 
who regarded any interference with parental control over 
children as undemocratic, or jockeyed out of the possibility 
of effective enforcement by designing men who were profiting 
by the unrestricted labor of children. Gradually, in the latter 
part of the century, laws in the interests of childhood pass into 
a third stage. The state began to discover its own power and 
to be more keenly aware of its responsibility. Individuals and 
organizations learned how to cooperate. Practical students of 
social conditions devised methods of securing measures that 
could be enforced. Labor oriented itself and its voice was heard 
with increasing respect. Employers found that the labor of 
young children was not profitable after all, and finally a be- 
ginning was made towards the establishment of systems of 
education that recognized the industrial and social needs of 
children. 

It is the purpose of this study to trace in some detail the 
development of legislation for the control and compulsory 
education of children from its inception in the English statutes 
for the restraint and industrial training of the children of the 
poor to its expression in the elaborate systems of universal, 
obligatory education with the accompanying elimination of 
child labor in the most progressive American states. 

From the time of Plato to the present, discriminating states- 
men have recognized the importance of education both as a 
stabilizing and as a selective agency. Though compulsory 
attendance upon the means of education was most perfectly 
developed in the most autocratic state of the modern world, 
those whose political ideal is "liberty under law" believe that 
there can be no real liberty, no true democracy without educa- 
tion, free, universal, compulsory for every citizen. The most 
hopeful symptom in the present industrial and social crisis is 



4 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

the supreme faith which all factions rest in education. Be- 
yond doubt, extensive educational programs, both state and 
national, are imminent. Since these programs, determining 
the educational and industrial policies of the future, must rest 
upon the educational and industrial practices of the past, an 
historical survey of the process by which the state gradually 
assumed control and direction of children's lives must have 
both interest and value. 

The limits and purposes of this study forbid the examination 
of the laws relative to compulsory education and the restriction 
of the labor of children in all the states. It seems impracti- 
cable even to take a sampling of such laws and administrative 
policies characterizing the principal geographic regions of the 
Union. The section dealing with the colonial period is limited 
to a few of the more populous colonies of the North, colonies 
in which the education of the children of common folk was 
especially stressed. Industrial conditions of great interest 
prevailed in the South, and the lives of working children were 
directed by laws of much the same character as those pre- 
vailing at the time in England. 3 Here, however, the Puritan 
zeal for literary education among the poor had no counter- 
part. Industrial life began to be modified by negro slavery 
before distinctively provincial ideals could develop. State 
educational systems did not thrive as in the North, and the 
education of the masses did not become a vital problem until 
after the Civil War. 

Again, in the early national period, the study has been 
narrowly restricted to a small group of states that developed 
relatively large manufacturing interests and thus came early 
to face the serious problems of child labor. In the more de- 
tailed discussion of particular states, an arbitrary selection 
-was made of a small group of states, each one of which has 
made some peculiar and significant advance in some phase of 
its regulation of school attendance and employment. The 
states chosen are Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 
Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Massachusetts and Connecticut 
are included partly because they best illustrate the develop- 

3. See Jernegan, "Compulsory Education in the Southern Colonies," 
School Beview, June, 1919, pp. 405-425. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

ment in America of the old English customs as modified by- 
Puritan ideals. In these two states manufacturing was early 
under way and the conflict between education and industry 
was first recognized. Massachusetts, as a colony, not only 
enacted the first compulsory education and compulsory school 
laws in America and sought first to control the labor of chil- 
dren, but throughout the national period she has usually been 
a leader in the several stages of advancement in legislation 
and administration. Connecticut was the first state to accept 
definitely the policy of state rather than local administration 
of school attendance laws; more clearly, too, than any other 
state, she has recognized the intimate relations of child labor 
and school attendance. New York, for obvious reasons, must 
be considered in such a study as this. Here the fight for and 
against the child has been waged on a large scale. The prob- 
lems of child labor have been included within a relatively 
brief space, and in recent years the legislation in behalf of 
Avorking children has been especially significant. Finally, 
Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were chosen because first to 
establish state systems of compulsory continuation schools for 
children employed in certain types of industry. These states 
are not unique among the sisterhood of states except that they 
have advanced one step further than the rest in the develop- 
ment of universal compulsory education. The same forces 
which made possible their advanced educational programs are 
working everywhere and are clearly manifested in a score of 
other states. 

In gathering materials for this monograph, recourse was had 
to original sources so far as they were available, but other 
sources were drawn upon freely. In the section dealing with 
conditions in England, Sir George Nieholls' interpretation of 
the English Poor Law was extremely suggestive. The chief 
sources consulted in preparing the section on early colonial 
laws and procedure were the colonial and town records, col- 
lections of various historical societies, and recognized author- 
ities on American colonial history. Laws, committee reports, 
reports of state officials, reports and discussions of philan- 
thropic and educational organizations, have been widely con- 
sulted in gathering data for the later portions of the study. 



6 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

While certain laws enacted subsequent to the year 1917 have 
been used to indicate the direction of modern thought relative 
to the labor and education of children, no attempt has been 
made to include in the study the mass of legislation, much of 
it necessarily temporary in character, called forth by the war 
or by conditions immediately following it. In order that he 
might gain some first hand knowledge of the questions dis- 
cussed, and that he might verify or correct some of the im- 
pressions gained from other sources, the writer visited each of 
the five states used to illustrate the development of modern 
methods of controlling the education and labor of children. 

The writer regrets that it has not been possible to present 
in the form of definite statistics more adequate evidence as to 
the operation of the various laws regulating the attendance 
.at school and the employment of children. Unfortunately the 
earlier reports of state departments of education, bureaus of 
labor, legislative committees and other bodies that might be 
expected to furnish statistical materials, were not presented 
in such a way as to enable the student to secure reliable data. 
Indeed, in many states educational statistics are so treated at 
the present time as to obscure the data essential to a proper 
study of attendance and employment. 

It is not possible for the writer to acknowledge except in a 
general way his indebtedness to the great number of education- 
al and labor officials through whose courtesy much valuable 
information was made available. He is under special obliga- 
tions, however, to Dean William F. Russell, of the State Univer- 
sity of Iowa, who read the manuscript and made valuable 
suggestions ; to Professor Samuel McCune Lindsay for direc- 
tions and advice in the treatment of the problem of child 
labor; to Professor George D. Strayer, in whose seminar the 
original outline was criticised and discussed, and to Professor 
Paul Monroe, for guidance in research and organization. 



CHAPTER I 

ENGLISH FOUNDATIONS 

Through the heterogeneous systems of education to be found 
in the various states of the Union run certain common princi- 
ples. Most nearly universal is the conception that the state 
must offer to every child such educational opportunities as will 
enable him to become an intelligent citizen, prepared to main- 
tain himself and those who may be dependent upon him. 
Scarcely less universal is the principle that it is the duty of 
the state to compel the child to accept such educational 
opportunity. 

It must be granted that in certain extensive sections of the 
country enforcement of laws providing for the education of 
children and the restriction of their labor is not seriously 
undertaken. Even in the most progressive states, adequate 
legislation and effective administration are of comparatively 
recent origin. But the fundamental conceptions of government 
forming the basis of our modern laws of child control are very 
old, reaching back, by way of the early English settlements 
in Massachusetts and Connecticut, to customs and laws pre- 
vailing in England in the period of Elizabeth and before. 

It is customary to think of modern compulsory education 
as having its origin in Germany in the period of the Protest- 
ant Reformation. Certainly the principle of universal learn- 
ing in the interests of the individual as well as the state is 
announced definitely by Luther. Calvin accepted this principle, 
applying it particularly to the individual, who, in the process 
of saving his soul, must come into relationship with God large- 
ly through the printed word. The Puritans who settled around 
Massachusetts Bay in the decade following the year 1628 were 
staunch Calvinists. They brought with them the austere con- 
victions of their leader, an exalted conception of the value of 
the Bible, and the determination that every child, as a part of 
his religious training, must be taught to read. But before they 



8 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

were Puritans, these men were Englishmen. Long before the 
religious conception arose which demanded for each child an 
elementary literary education for his soul's sake, there had 
arisen an economic necessity which demanded for him an in- 
dustrial education for his body's sake. It will be the main 
purpose of this chapter to demonstrate the following theses : 

1. That before the close of the sixteenth century England 
had developed a well defined policy of providing industrial 
training or education for the children of the working classes. 

2. That the training or industrial education of such chil- 
dren was provided for by statute and was compulsory. 

3. That the expense of such training or education might be 
met by public taxation. 

It is useless to attempt to trace compulsory education to the 
laws of Alfred the Great. Scholar and devoted servant of his 
people though he was, his wish that the youth of England 
might all be set to learning was apparently never expressed 
in statute, 1 though prominent historians are fond of attribut- 
ing to him a law or "doom" enjoining all freemen to send 
their sons to school. 2 Probably what Alfred did for education 
had permanent value. It is certain that by the end of the 
thirteenth century schools were abundant in England, but 
they were attended by a very highly selected group, with only 
an occasional exceptional lad from the lower orders of society. 3 
Apparently the masses remained practically unschooled until 
the philanthropic movement of the eighteenth century, yet it 
is precisely to this class that we must look to discover in its 
slow advance toward economic freedom that principle of state 
control which made universal education possible. 

The reign of Edward III, 1327-1377, roughly marks a turn- 
ing point in industrial and social England. The lif§;of the 
common man in the thirteenth century was har$ and uncertain. 
The feudal system was breaking down. Men were securing a 
larger degree of personal freedom. Many of the more aggres- 
sive and turbulent, released from old restraints, had become 
outlaws, a constant menace to property and life. 4 Serfs freed 

1. Leach, The Schools of Medieval England, p. 24 f. 

2. For example, Hume, History of England, Vol. VI, p. 107 f . 

3. Leach, op. cit., p. 206. 

4. Nicholls, History of the English Poor Laws, 1860, I, 23. 



ENGLISH FOUNDATIONS 9 

from vassalage could no longer turn to kindly authority in 
case of need. Pauperism arose, vagabondage became common, 
the lanes and highways of England were filled with an un- 
employed and dangerous rabble. Laws of terrible severity 5 
had failed to control the growing evils arising from changing 
conditions. "It is a great law of social development," says 
Arnold Toynbee, "that the movement from slavery to freedom 
is also a movement from security to insecurity of maintenance. 
There is a clear connection between the growth of freedom 
and the growth of pauperism; it is scarcely too much to say 
that the latter is the price we pay for the former." 8 

In an attempt to protect society and to control the ever in- 
creasing floating population there was enacted the famous 
"Statute of Labourers," 7 which, besides providing for the 
rigorous control of vagrants, both "lusty" and "impotent," 
fixed wages, regulated prices of commodities, and ordered that 
all men and women under sixty years of age, not craftsmen, 
landholders, tradesmen, or regularly employed, should "serve 
him which so shall require, and take only the wages, livery, 
meed, or salary accustomed to be given in the places where 
he oweth to serve." 

The authors of this measure evidently proceeded on the 
assumption that there was sufficient employment at hand for 
every able-bodied man who was willing to work; that those 
unwilling to work but able to do so, might be forced to be- 
come self-supporting by restraining them from travel and mak- 
ing it illegal for anyone to give them alms; and that the help- 
less or "impotent" poor should be maintained by the church 
or by individual charity. Here is found compulsory employ- 
ment, but with no specific mention of children. 

Under Edward's successor, state control of industry was ad- 
vanced still further. In the fourteenth century as now, labor 
was being drawn from the country to the town, tempted by 
the higher wages commanded by the skilled craftsmen. The 
ranks of labor were greatly depleted at this time by the plague 
which swept away a considerable portion of the working 



5. IS Edw. I; 2 Edw. Ill; 5 Edw. III. 

6. The Industrial Bevolution in England, p. 95. 

7. 23 Edw. Ill (1360). 



10 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

population. As a check to the movement cityward, the landed 
gentry secured the passage of a law designed to control young 
children, requiring: 

' ' That he or she, which use to labour at the Plough and Cart 
or other Labour or Service of Husbandry till they be of the 
Age of twelve years, that from thenceforth they shall abide 
at the same Labour, without being put to any Mystery or 
Handicraft. ' * 

It appears that about this time the schools, now abundant 
throughout England, 9 were drawing an appreciable number of 
boys of the working classes away from the farms. The land- 
holders were deeply concerned at this further depletion of the 
ranks of their toilers, and the Commons, in 1391, petitioned 
the king to require that "for the safety and honor of the free- 
men of this realm," no child of the villein class should be per- 
mitted to attend school. 10 King Richard, happily, did not 
grant this request. The grievance persisted, however, and the 
matter came before his successor, Henry IV. Henry was un- 
willing to exclude children of humble parentage from school, 
yet he recognized the claims of the landholders and evidently 
shared the apprehensions of the Commons as to the movement 
to the towns. He therefore confirmed the legislation in con- 
trol of children, requiring further that no parent not possessed 
of land or rent to the value of twenty shillings should appren- 
tice his child to any craft or other labor within any city or 
borough in the realm, but should set him at some other em- 
ployment. But to this severe regulation the far-sighted king 
or his advisers added a most significant alternative : 

"Provided always, That every Man or Woman, of what Es- 
tate or Condition that he be, shall be free to set their Son or 
Daughter to take learning at any manner of School that 
pleaseth them within the Realm." 11 

The significance of the closing paragraph of this statute is 
apparent. Compulsory employment of children, so character- 
istic of New England two and a half centuries later, was al- 
ready clearly established. Now for the first time appears legal 

8. IS Rich. II, c 4, (1388). 

9. Leach, English Schools at the Reformation, pp. 7-58. 

10. De Montmorency, The Progress of Education in England, 1904, p. 27. 

11. 7 Henry IV, c 17 (1405). 



ENGLISH FOUNDATIONS 11 

recognition of the right of the child, even of most humble 
birth, to such education as may be available. Further, attend- 
ance at school was made a legal alternative for the regular 
employment required by the older law. 12 

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the laws intended 
to prevent vagabondage and to stabilize industry were further 
elaborated. The great statutes of Henry VIII, especially, must 
have been given careful consideration by the most expert 
lawyers of the time. 13 

Affecting children specifically, was a provision giving local 
authorities power to take up all between the ages of five and 
thirteen years who might be found begging or in idleness, and 
to apprentice them to masters in husbandry or crafts, that 
they might be taught to gain their own livelihood when they 
should become of age. Other provisions in these statutes, of 
importance in this discussion, but affecting children less direct- 
ly, are those relating to the raising of funds for the care and 
employment of the poor. Here the church parish became the 
unit and the church and town officials the administrative 
agents. All contributions were at first voluntary, and only 
very gradually did this system give way to taxation. 

Ever since it had become firmly established, the church had 
been the great organized unit of society in all forms of chari- 
table work. From the beginning it had been regarded not only 
as a duty but as a privilege to minister to the needs of "God's 
poor." It had regularly set aside a considerable portion of 
its revenues for this purpose, and on the continent, at least 
as early as the eighth century, secular law had supplemented 
church canons in making payments to this end obligatory. 14 



12. There appear to be no reliable data as to the extent to which boys of 
the lower classes were drawn into the schools. Tawney, The Agrarian 
Problem in the Sixteenth Century, p. 134, finds that sons of yeomen and 
artisans were in the grammar schools of the sixteenth century. He observes 
that at the beginning of that century ' ' the upper classes have not yet begun 
to covet education for themselves sufficiently to withhold it from the poor. ' ' 
It seems fairly certain that the ''poor" in whose interests many of the 
earlier educational foundations were established were not of the peasant or 
yeoman classes, but rather of the gentler born who were not rich enough to 
patronize more expensive schools. See Dobbs, Education and Social Move- 
ments, p. 91 ; also Leach, op. cit., p. 109. 

13. 22 Henry VIII, c 12 (1530) ; 27 Henry VIII, c 25. 

14. Ashley, English Economic History, p. 307. 



12 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

In England in the eleventh century, one-third of the tithes of 
the church had been devoted to the poor under the legislative 
sanction of Ethelred and his Witan. 15 . Though these laws had 
probably been neglected and forgotten long before industrial 
changes had made poverty a subject of state concern, the 
church, more particularly the monasteries, remained the princi- 
pal alms-giving institution up to the Reformation. But even 
before Henry suppressed the monasteries, the established 
means of ministering to the poor had become inadequate. 16 
In 1392 it was made obligatory upon every parish church to 
set aside annually a suitable sum for the relief of needy parish- 
ioners. 17 The poor laws of Henry VIII set up more detailed 
regulations, made justices of the peace responsible for the dis- 
tribution of parish funds, and provided minutely for their 
collection, but expressly stated that the offerings to be re- 
ceived from "the good Christian people" were to be volun- 
tary. 18 Twenty-two years later the next step toward taxation 
for the support of the poor was taken. Each parish church 
was required to elect two able persons to be collectors of alms, 
whose duty it was to "gentellie aske and demande of everie 
man and woman what they of their charitie will be contented 
to give wekelie towardes the relief of the Poore." If any able 
to contribute should refuse to do so, the parson and the church 
wardens were to "gentillie exhorte him." This failing to 
bring results, the bishop summoned the reluctant member and 
endeavored to persuade him, "by charitable wayes and 
means," to contribute. 19 

The next logical step toward supporting the poor by a 
general tax on property took place in the reign of Elizabeth. 
Contributions were still voluntary, but now, after persuasion 
and kindly entreaty had failed, it was provided that the 
brother of "forwarde or willful minde" should be bound over 
to appear before the justices at their next session, who were 
to "charitably and gentelly persuade and move the said ob- 



15. Ibid., p. 308. * 

16. Ibid., p. 331ff. 

17. 15 Bich. II, c 6. 

18. 22 Henry VIII, c 12 (1530). 

19. 5 #• 6 Edw. VI, c 2. 



ENGLISH FOUNDATIONS 13 

stinate person textend his or their Charitee towardes the Re- 
lief of the Poore." In ease he still refused, these officers were 
directed to lay a definite assessment upon him. For failure to 
pay this assessment, the reluctant almoner might be imprisoned 
until the sum had been paid, "together with the arrerages 
therof yf any suche shall fortune to bee." 20 

Ten years later the law was amended, 21 empowering justices 
for the first time to tax and assess weekly charges for poor 
funds to provide employment for "rogues and vagabonds." 
The next step, 1575, authorized the use of these funds to pro- 
vide employment for children and to accustom them to work, 
as a prophylactic against vagabondage and pauperism. 22 
. In 1597 and 1601 the final steps were taken in the develop- 
ment of the poor law to the state in which it is found when 
compulsory education laws appear in the Massachusetts 
records. 23 In these laws of Elizabeth still more definite pro- 
vision was made for the compulsory support of the worthy 
poor, for the industrial training of children, and for apprentic- 
ing those whose parents were not able to maintain them. 24 
These statutes may be regarded as acts of consolidation and 
simplification. The experiences of three centuries in dealing 
with vagrants, with the unemployed, and with the poor and 
their children, are brought together. Defective as these regula- 
tions now appear, they were the best the period could devise, 
and their influence in the following century both in England 
and in America is difficult to estimate. 25 



20. 5 EUs., c 3 (1563). 

21. 14 EUs., c 5 (1572-73). 

22. 25 EUs., c 3. The section of the statute dealing with this subject leads 
thus quaintly up to the specific orders of the law: "Also to the Intente 
Youthe maye be accustomed and brought up in Laboure and Worke, and 
then not lyke to growe to bee ydle Rogs, and to the Entente also that suche 
as bee alredye growen up in Ydleness, and so Roges at this present, maye 
not have any juste Excuse in sayeng that they cannot get any Service or 
Worcke — and that other poore and needye maye bee set on Worcke: Bee 
yt ordeyned and enacted . . . ." etc. 

23. 39 EUs., c 8 # 4; 43 EUs., c 2. 

24. It is not possible to determine the approximate number of children who 
were receiving this form of compulsory industrial training. The number 
must have been considerable, for it is estimated that in the later years of 
Elizabeth nearly a third of the people of England were recipients of charity. 
Bruce, Economic History of Virginia, 1896, Vol. I, p. 582. 

25. See Ashley, English Economic History, p. 366. 



14 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

It is not probable that Englishmen accepted with universal 
enthusiasm the principles of compulsion as they appeared in 
the process of their slow development. The fact that a small 
group of radicals in a new country found it immediately de- 
sirable to employ them all with several important modifica- 
tions and additions is not conclusive evidence of their popular- 
ity. Ashley says that the compulsory poor rate, or tax, prob- 
ably excited much the same indignation as does the school 
board rate of to-day. Gibbins, referring to the same thing, 
says, "It was no longer a free act of Christian charity, but a 
compulsory contribution toward the mitigation of a social 
evil, a contribution of the same nature as the nineteenth cen- 
tury poor-rate. 26 

Nor was there a universal attempt to enforce all the pro- 
visions of the law. Where the voluntary system brought in 
sufficient funds, the old plan stood for a hundred years. 27 
But the operation of this legislation in England is of little con- 
cern in this study. It is not probable that any of these laws 
were regarded as educational at the time, though the portions 
dealing with apprenticeship to the crafts are now seen to have 
very direct educational bearing. These regulations, says Cun- 
ningham, as a scheme of technical education for artisans were 
admirably suited to the needs of the times. The apprenticing 
of pauper children, too, was educational, in that they were at 
least taught to earn a living. Public effort in this direction 
was later supplemented by private beneficence, and institu- 

26. Gibbins, Industry in England, p. 261. Tawney, op. cit., p. 269, is 
almost dramatic in showing how, in a gradual process of political evolution, 
government arrives at the Elizabethan program of public control, support, 
and industrial training of the poor under compulsory assessment or tax. 
He says- "Governments make desperate efforts for about: one hundred years 
to evade their new obligations. They whip and brand and bore Oars; they 
offer the vagrant as a slave to the man who seizes him; they appeal to 
charity ■ they introduce the parish clergy to put pressure on the uncharitable ; 
they direct the bishops to reason with those who stop their ears against the 
■narish clergy. When merely repressive measures and voluntary effort are 
finally discredited, they levy a compulsory charge rather as a fine for con- 
tumacy than as a rate, and slide reluctantly into obligatory assessments only 
when all else has failed." 

27 Ashley op. cit., p. 360. See also Nicholls, History of the English Poor 
Taw Vol I p 253, and Charles Richmond Henderson, Modern Methods of 
Charity VV 167-172. The transfer of authority in the administration of 
the poor law from the church to the state was a gradual process. 



ENGLISH FOUNDATIONS 15 

tions were established in which children were taught certain 
useful arts. 28 

Meanwhile, the literary education of the masses had not 
fared well. There was no attempt or apparent desire on the 
part of the government to place learning, in the accepted sense 
of the term, at the command of the common people. 29 The 
schools which might easily have developed into elementary 
state-controlled schools were destroyed by Henry VIII under 
the first Chantry act. 30 The Reformation did not affect Eng- 
land as it did Germany and the other protesting countries. 
During the undisputed sway of the Catholic church there had 
been a demand for highly educated priests and teachers, but 
literary learning on the part of the commonalty was not re- 
garded as necessary. Under the leadership of the Protestant 
Reformers the education of all was stressed from the first, 31 
and the idea not only of affording opportunity to all to acquire 
at least a knowledge of reading, but of actually requiring the 
attainment of such knowledge, was not foreign to the thought 
of the day. But the English were not disturbed by this new 
doctrine, except as they were reached from without by the 
Lutheran or Calvinistic teachings. The more radical English 
Protestants, later known as Puritans, had, of course, come 
under the influence of Calvinism in its educational as well as 
its ecclesiastical principles, and though it was not possible, in 
England, to require education by secular law, beyond that in- 
dustrial training which had for a long period been given to 
the children of the poor, their higher law of conscience doubt- 
less did require that all children be taught to read the Bible. 
Accustomed, as the Puritans had been for years, to the in- 
dustrial training of the poor at public expense, it was not to 
prove difficult, in the small and relatively democratic group 
in America, to attach to the industrial program learning in 



28. Cunningham, English Industry and Commerce, p. 52 ; also Hutchins and 
Harrison, History of Factory Legislation, p. 3. 

29. In 1662 an act was passed under which instruction in both letters and 
industry was given to children of the poor in London. Dobbs, ibid, p. 96. 
There is evidence that in the time of Elizabeth certain parishes were giving 
aid in specific cases in tuition for both elementary and advanced literary 
instruction. De Montmorency, State Intervention in Eng. Ed., p. 67. 

30. Leach, English Schools at the Reformation, p. 3. 

31. Parker, History of Modern Elementary Education, ch. 3. 



16 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

letters as well. It is by no means insignificant that in Scot- 
land, even before the Reformation, there was a movement 
towards compulsory education for the sons of nobles and free- 
holders, 32 while under Protestant influences elementary schools 
were made compulsory upon the parishes in 1616. 

Step by step, through a period of three hundred years, Eng- 
land had evolved certain principles of state control upon which 
rest our modern democratic systems of public education. There 
has been a complete reversal of ideals regarding the productive 
labor of children, yet in the development of recent compulsory 
vocational education there is striking similarity in aim. 

In conclusion, the more important principles of public con- 
trol revealed in this brief consideration of the English Poor 
Law, and appearing more or less distinctly in later American 
legislation regulating the schooling and employment of chil- 
dren, may be summarized as follows: 

1. The state may control the movements and the employ- 
ment of the poor. 

2. The state may compel the local community to care for 
its unemployed and its poor, and may require that funds for 
these purposes be raised by general tax. 

3. The state recognizes the value of the regular employ- 
ment of youth, both in its relation to the economic indepen- 
dence of the individual and its effect upon his moral character. 

4. The state may not only require that all children be em- 
ployed, but it may determine the nature of the employment. 

5. Though the regular, productive employment of youth is 
desirable, attendance at school may always be accepted as a 
satisfactory substitute. 

6. The state may require the local community to train or 
educate its children in industry. 

7. The state may require the local community to take chil- 
dren from parents unable to support them, and bind them out 
as apprentices to learn a trade. 

8. The state may require the local community to tax its 
members to support industrial training or education. 



32. Strong, History of Secondary Education in Scotland, p. 32. 



CHAPTER II 

COMPULSORY EDUCATION AND CHILD LABOR 
IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD 

Long before the first settlements were established in 
America, the tradition of the compulsory care and industrial 
training of the children of the poor had become firmly estab- 
lished in English law. It remained for colonial New England 
to add the elements of literary education to the program and 
to extend it to include the children of all classes. Within a 
single decade after the charter was granted to the Massachu- 
setts Bay Company, a college was set up in the new world, 
and schools were in operation. In the second decade, both 
elementary and secondary schools were made compulsory, their 
support by public taxation was legalized, and parents allow- 
ing their children to grow up in either ignorance or idleness 
were subject to the penalty of the law. The histories of several 
of the American colonies illustrate the gradual expansion of 
the early English conception of education, but the limits of 
the present study permit the examination of materials in 
Massachusetts and Connecticut only. 

Between 1628 and 1640, approximately twenty thousand 
people, all of English birth, settled around Massachusetts Bay, 
about four thousand of them settling in or near Boston with- 
in the first six years of this period. 1 They were Puritans, 
representatives, therefore, of the more progressive or liberal 
element in English politics. It is important to remember that 
the settlers of Massachusetts Bay were not exiles from their 
native land, turning away from old customs and laws with 
anger in their hearts. They were Englishmen, guaranteed 
under charter full rights as English subjects, they and those 
to be born to them in the new land, "as yf they and everie of 
them were borne within the realme of England. 2 They were 



1. Fiske, The Beginnings of New England, p. 109. 

2. Massachusetts Bay Charter. 

17 



18 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

not seeking to escape English law, but held from the king 
authority to govern themselves as Englishmen. Naturally the 
government set up in the New World would be established 
upon English precedents, though the colonists were given full 
power to enact additional legislation as circumstances might 
require, the only limitation being that such acts "be not con- 
trarie or repugnant to the laws and statutes of our realme of 
England. ' ' 3 

The best that England had accomplished up to the end of 
the sixteenth century might be expected in the earliest legis- 
lative expression of the new citizens of Massachusetts. They 
were a select group, well bred, well educated, possessed of 
the highest religious ideals of the time. 4 It is evident, how- 
ever, that the saintly character of these early pioneers has 
been overemphasized by certain of their enthusiastic historians. 
John Fiske, for example, says of them: "The lowest ranks of 
society were not represented in the emigration; and all idle, 
shiftless, or disorderly people were rigorously refused ad- 
mission into the new community." . . . 5 

Yet the records show that while admission as freemen in the 
Company was limited to church members and property holders, 
there were in the Colony from the first many servants and 
laborers for the control of whom strict laws were at once 
enacted. 6 The records further show that almost from the first 
the magistrates were obliged to deal not only with petty crime 
but with offenses as black as those which stain the records of 
modern courts. Attention is called to these conditions, not as 
a reflection upon the character of the splendid men and women 
who broke the way into the New England wilderness, but as 
a reminder that they were typical Englishmen of the Puritan 
group, no worse, perhaps not greatly superior to the three or 
four million who remained at home. 

The task of establishing government was not a formidable 



3. Ibid. 

4. Dexter, History of Education in the United States, p. 24; Palfrey, 
History of New England, p. 277. 

5. American and Political Ideas, p. 21. 

6. Becords of Colony of Massachusetts Bay, I, pp. 76, 77, 81, 84, 88, etc. 
See also the Governor 's letter on care of servants, April 21, 1629 ; Ibid., p. 
396 ff. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 19 

one. Records indicate that there was no break in English 
customs. English laws prevailed except when lack of pre- 
cedent, both in English statutes and the Bible forced them to 
initiate neAv legislation 7 Through the General Court and in 
town meetings the Massachusetts freemen fixed wages, 8 pro- 
vided for the poor, 9 ordered that poor children be apprenticed 
and taught a trade, 10 laid severe personal restrictions upon 
members of the community, 11 quite after the fashion of their 
fellow Englishmen across the sea. 

As has been demonstrated in the preceding chapter, the 
people of England had gradually grown accustomed to definite 
public control of the poor. In America the idea of compulsion 
was extended so as to bring the entire population under various 
forms of control formerly reserved for certain classes. Com- 
pulsory employment of children was stressed in much the same 
fashion as in England, except that in New England the chil- 
dren of all classes became the objects of public solicitude. The 
Governor urged at the first that "all apply themselves to one 
calling or other, and noe idle drones bee permitted to live 
amongst us. 12 The economic as well as the moral value of child 
labor was appreciated, as evidenced by the approving comment 
of the Reverend Mr. Higgeson, who wrote in 1629 of Marble- 
harbor, near Salem: "Little children here by setting of come 
may earne much more than their own maintenance." 13 

By 1640, the General Court was considering ways and means 
of utilizing labor of children to increase the economic efficiency 
of the colony. A larger supply of linen being desired, the 
Court in its May session gravely considered "what course may 
bee taken for teaching the boyes and girles in all towns the 
spining of the yarne." 14 A year later, the Court in further 



7. "Good News from New England," 1648. In Collections Mass. Hist. 
Soc., Series 4, Vol. VI, p. 205. 

8. Becords of Colony of Massachusetts Bay, I, p. 76. 

9. Ibid., p. 122. 

10. Plymouth Colonial Becords, II, p. 38. 

11. Cambridge Becord, p. 108; Baintree Becords, p. 5; Becords of Col. of 
Mass. Bay, I, p. 140. 

12. Becords of Col. of Mass. Bay, I, p. 405. 

13. Collections Mass. Hist. Society, I, p. 118. 

14. Becords of Col. of Mass. Bay, I, p. 294. 



20 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

consideration of the economic welfare of the community again 
ordered the employment of children, implying that the 
English practice of instruction in industry was beginning to 
fall into disuse. The entry is in part: 

"And it is desired & wilbe expected that all masters of 
families should see that their children & servants should bee 
industriously implied, so as the mornings & evenings & other 
seasons may not bee lost, as formerly they have bene; (& if it 
bee so continued will certeinly bring us to poverty;) but that 
the honest & profitable customs of England may bee practised 
amongst us so as all hands may bee implied." . . . 15 

The following year, 1642, marks the first great advance over 
English legislation in the control and instruction of children. 
The law of that year is one of the most famous bits of educa- 
tional legislation in history. It sums up the English procedure 
regarding instruction of the children of the poor in productive 
industry, but, going further, extends the requirements to in- 
clude all children ; it enjoins upon the towns the duty of hold- 
ing children steadily to their tasks; gives directions for deal- 
ing with delinquents ; and for the first time in English history 
provides for the literary instruction of every child. 16 

This is strictly a compulsory education and child labor law. 
Its provisions concerning the labor of children were, of course, 
almost exactly the reverse of the modern conception of what 
such a law should be; it made no schooling requirements and 

15. Ibid. 

16. Ibid., II, pp. 6-7. The law is repeated with very slight variation on pages 
8-9 of this volume. Its salient points are as follows 

1. It recites the neglect of parents and masters in "training up their 
children in learning and labor, and other imployments which may be 
profitable to the common wealth." 

2. It charges the selectmen of the various towns with the correction of 
this evil. 

3. For neglect of this duty, the officials are made subject to fine or other 
punishment. 

4. A standard of literary education is fixed, children being required to 
read and to understand the principles of religion and the capital laws of 
the country. 

5. The officials were given power to impose fines on parents and masters 
who refused to comply with the law. 

6. The officials were given power, any court or magistrate consenting, to 
apprentice children whose parents or masters were found unable or unfit 
to care for them properly. 

7. Adequate provisions were made for the enforcement of the measure. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 21 

provided no schools, but it made provisions for enforcement 
which were equalled by few if any of the schooling and labor 
laws prior to the twentieth century, 17 and anticipated some of 
the principles of modern industrial education. 

To what extent the law of 1642 was enforced in those early 
years, the records do not reveal. It is certain, however, that 
its machinery was capable of operation, and that in Massachu- 
setts and later in Connecticut individuals were prosecuted for 
. its violation. 18 

No further legislation of a general character regarding the 
employment of children seems to have been found necessary. 
The act of 1642, which was "to continue for two years, and 
till the Court shall take further order," was reenacted in 1648 
with changes intended to strengthen it and render its pro- 
visions more specific, and in its revised form it continued to 
appear in the codes of both Massachusetts and Connecticut 
until the English Government, under Andros, took back the 
charter. 19 The poor-laws of the colonies, also, reveal some- 
thing of the public attitude towards children and the passion 
for bringing them up in habits of industry. Only later was 
there evidenced in this legislation concern for the literary 
education of the poor. For example, in 1658, long before there 
is a record of a school in the place, the Court at Plymouth 
directed Captain Josias Winslow and Constance Southworth 
to cooperate with the Treasurer in the erection of an addition 
to the jail, such addition to be used as a house of correction 
to which all idlers, vagrants, and "rebellious children and 
servants" were to be brought, properly disciplined, and set 
to work. 20 

The Province Charter, 1692, sums up in a single sentence the 
sentiment and practice of the time, affording, also, precedent 
for the truancy laws of the second half of the nineteenth 
century, in enjoining the overseers of the poor to see that 

17. Elizabeth Otey, Woman and Child Wage-Earners in the United States, 
Vol. VI, p. 15. Senate Doc. No. 645, 1910. 

18. Bee. of Col. of Mass. Bay, III, p. 102 ; Watertown Bee., pp. 103-114. 

19. Jernegan, "Compulsory Education in the American Colonies," School 
Beview, Dec, 1918, pp. 740-744. Note: In 1650, the educational and indus- 
trial laws of Massachusetts were embodied without material change in the 
Connecticut Code. 

20. Plymouth Becords, XI, p. 40. 



22 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

children "not having estates otherwise to maintain themselves, 
do not live idly and mispend their time in loitering, but that 
they be brought up or imployed in some honest calling, which 
may be profitable unto themselves and the publick." 21 

The law contemplated that all poor children would be bound 
out to learn a trade or to master some form of industry. 22 A 
few years later an educational clause was added to the pro- 
visions for apprenticing poor children, their masters being re- 
quired to teach them "to read and write as they may be cap- 
able." In 1710 and in 1771 the educational clause underwent 
slight changes which throw some light on the education of 
girls in the eighteenth century. In the former year, overseers 
of the poor were directed to cause bound children to be taught, 
"males to read and write, females to read, as they respectively 
may be capable." 23 In 1771 it was provided that boys be in- 
structed in "reading, writing and cyphering," girls in reading 
and writing, "if they be capable." 24 The development of laws 
for the employment and education of poor children in Con- 
necticut did not differ essentially from that in Massachusetts, 
and throws little additional light upon the progress of public 
control. 

Apparently the highest point in Puritan educational ideals 
was reached in the year 1647. Compulsory education both in 
industry and letters had been provided for by the measure of 
1642. Under this act no schools had been required, but the 
responsibility of fulfilling its educational obligations was laid 
directly upon parents and masters of children. There is 
evidence that elementary or at least dame schools were quite 
common at that time, and in the larger towns Latin Grammar 
Schools similar to those of England had been set up. 25 But 



21. Mass. Acts and Resolves, Authorized Edition of 1867, Vol. I, p. 67. 

22. Those who would not work were taken to the house of correction for 
special treatment. On entering, each, without regard to sex, was given not 
to exceed ten strokes of the whip on the bare back. 

23. Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I, p. 538. 
Ibid, p. 654. 

24. Ibid., Vol. V, p. 162. It is to be borne in mind that this legisla- 
tion refers only to children who came under the supervision of the overseers 
of the poor. The law of 1642 required both parents and masters of appren- 
tices to teach children in their charge to read. 

25. Collections Mass. Historical Society, Vol. I, pp. 240-243 ; IX, p. 160. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 23 

the fear of illiteracy was in the hearts of the Puritan leaders. 26 
Their religion demanded that all be able to read, and, in order 
to insure to the children of every community the educational 
opportunities voluntarily provided by the most progressive, 
the famous compulsory school law of 1647 was enacted, the 
following being its most important provisions: 27 

1. A master able to teach reading and writing in every 
community of fifty families. 

2. A grammar school in every town of one hundred families 
with a master able to prepare the boys for admission to the 
university. 

3. Teachers to be paid either by parents or masters or by 
means of a general tax. 

4. A penalty of five English pounds upon any community 
failing to meet the terms of the law. 

Dr. George Martin discovers in the two laws of 1642 and 
1647, six principles upon which our modern public school 
systems are largely based. 28 They are: 

1. The universal education of youth is essential to the well- 
being of the state. 

2. The obligation to furnish this education rests primarily 
upon the parent. 

3. The state has a right to enforce this obligation. 

4. The state may fix a standard which shall determine the 
kind of education and minimum amount. 

5. Funds may be raised by a general tax to support such 
education. 

6. Education higher than elementary may be supplied by 
the state. 

It will be observed that practically all these principles are 
at least dimly outlined in the various measures developed in 
England during the three centuries preceding the emigration 
to America. 29 It will also be observed that but two elements 
are now lacking to include all that make up the modern com- 
pulsory education law, tan attendance requirement and free- 
dom of the child from labor during the school period) Neither 
of these principles appears in the American school systems un- 



26. "New England's First Fruits," 1643; in Collections Mass Historical 
Society, Vol. VI, p. 242. 

27. Bee. of Col. of Mass. Bay, II, p. 203. 

28. Evolution of the Mass. Public School System, p. 13. 

29. See Chapter I. 



24 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

til the nineteenth century ; the acceptance of the latter involved 
a fundamental change in the conception of the child's economic 
status. 

The law of 1647 left the question of school support entirely 
to the community. It merely required that schools be main- 
tained. The support of public enterprise by general taxation 
was well established by this time, but the general policy of 
meeting the entire expense of elementary and secondary educa- 
tion in this way was deferred to the nineteenth century. Few, 
if any, of the early schools were entirely free. Of seven im- 
portant grammar schools in Massachusetts, Martin finds no 
two maintained in the same way. 30 Frequently lands were set 
apart either by the Court or by the town, the income to be 
used in partial payment of a master. 31 Again, lands were made 
over to a faithful teacher as partial compensation for his 
services, or sold and the proceeds used for the purpose. 32 Often 
a rate was levied on all patrons of the school able to pay, the 
town voting funds to provide for the education of those of 
restricted means. 33 But back of all this liberty as to methods 
of support was the authority of the state now able to require 
that each town support its school or pay a fixed penalty. 

But the promise of the earlier years was not fully realized. 34 
The sons of the second and third generations were not able to 
maintain the high standards of their fathers. Some of the 
causes are obvious. The Puritan leaders were picked men, 
men of more than average intelligence and education, certain- 
ly men of lofty ideals and for the most part highly religious. 
The laws of normal distribution of ability, piety, and other 
human qualities would tend to level down in the succeeding 
generations those attributes which, through selection, were 



30. Op. Cit., p. 48. 

31. Bee. of Col. of Mass. Bay, TV, pt. 1, pp. 397, 400. Baintree Becords, 
p. 9. 

32. Publications Colonial Society of Mass., Vol. XVII, p. 135. 
Cambridge, town meeting, Sept. 13, 1648: "It is agreed at a meeting of 
the "Whole Towne, that there should be land sould of the Comon to the 
gratifying of mr. Corlet, for his paines in keeping a sehoole in the Towne, 
the sume of Ten pounds, if it can be attained, provided: it shall not 
prjudice the Cow comon." 

33. Hartford Town Votes, I, pp. 63, 65. Baintree Becords, p. 18. 

34. See Updegraff, The Origin of the Moving School in Mass., 1908, Ch. 
VII. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 25 

abnormally high in the first. Then many able men, few of the 
lower ranks, returned to England. 35 Bitter warfare with 
hostile natives brought prosperous colonies to poverty. 36 The 
witch eraft madness seriously affected parts of the colonies dur- 
ing the later decades of the century. 37 All of these influences, 
together with the unavoidable hardships of pioneer life, the 
lack of leisure, and the added fact that all education above 
the rudiments led directly to the college, serving no other 
recognized purpose, effected a steady decline in educational 
standards during the later years of the seventeenth century, 
extending through the first half of the eighteenth. 38 

Many towns were presented in the later years of the seven- 
teenth century for failure to provide the required schools. 39 
In Massachusetts the penalty for such failure was doubled in 
1671 40 and again in 1683. In the latter year it was required 
also that in case a town had increased to five hundred families 
two writing schools and two grammar schools should be main- 
tained. The increase in penalty may be regarded as an in- 
dication that certain towns had found it less burdensome to 
pay the fine than to keep up a school. 

Throughout the colonial period, educational and economic 
conditions remained much the same in Massachusetts and 
Connecticut. In the latter colony there is excellent evidence 
that though zeal in the education of children might lag, there 
was no lack of interest in their productive capacity. Apparent- 
ly the long school year interfered with the industrial program, 
for in 1690 the General Court reduced the period during which 
the elementary school must be in session to six months be- 



35. Josselyn, Collections Mass. Historical Society, Series 3, Vol. Ill, p. 384. 

36. Old Colony Historical Society Collections, II, p. 13. 

It is said that at the close of King Philip's War, 1675, of eighty towns 
ten had been destroyed or abandoned, and a large portion of the rest had 
suffered heavily; one man in every ten of military age had fallen; a debt 
had been created exceeding, in Plymouth, the entire value of personal 
property. 

37. See the diaries of Cotton Mather and Judge Sewell in Mass. Hist. 
Society, Series 7, Vol. VII, p. 150; and Series 5, Vol. V, pp. 358-365. 

38. Weedon, Economic History of New England, I, p. 220. 

39. For examples see Dorchester Town Becords, in Report of Record Com- 
mission of Boston, Vol. V, p. 84. History of Newbury, p. 124; Early 
Becords of Lancaster, p. 172. 

40. Bee. of Col. of Mass. Bay, IV, pt. 2, p. 486. loid, Vol. V, p. 414. 



26 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

cause of "the necessity many parents or masters may be under 
to improve their children and servants in labour for a great 
part of the yeare." 41 This action limited the educational 
opportunity of the children of the humbler class, as the Gram- 
mar schools, attended by the select and wealthier group, were 
not affected by the order. The thrifty lawmakers were seem- 
ingly more eager to "improve" their children in labor than 
in learning. 

Singularly enough, at this same time the Court records the 
discovery that "there are many persons unable to read the 
English tongue, and thereby uncapable to read the holy word 
of God, and the lawes of the Colony." Parents and masters 
were, therefore, strictly enjoined to "cause their respective 
children and servants as they are capable, to be taught to read 
distinctly the English tongue. 42 There is no evidence that any 
member of the Court was impressed by the inconsistency of the 
two measures. 

In 1700 the Connecticut Code was again revised, bringing 
it to the general form, in which it remained down to the clos- 
ing years of the century. Under this code every town of 
seventy families or upward was required to "be constantly 
provided of a sufficient schoolmaster to teach the children and 
youth to read and write." In towns of less than seventy 
families a master was to be maintained for half of the year. 
In each of the four "county towns" a grammar school was 
required, "and some discreet person of good conversation, well 
instructed in the tongues, procured to keep such a school." 
At this time a regular tax of forty shillings per thousand 
pounds was laid upon property for the support of schools. 

In Massachusetts, King William's Charter displaced the old 
organization in 1691, but the first Assembly reenacted the com- 
pulsory school and education laws. At its second session the 
essential features of these laws were restated in the last sec- 
tion of a measure entitled, "An act for the settlement and sup- 
port of ministers and schoolmasters." 43 This act indicates the 



41. Connecticut Records, IV, p. 31. 

42. Ibid., p. 30. 

43. Acts and Resolves of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Vol. I, pp. 62, 
63. 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 27 

high degree of compulsion still attaching to the religious as 
well as the educational practices of the Colony. If a town 
neglected to supply itself with an "able, learned, orthodox 
minister or ministers, of good conversation, to dispense the 
word of God to them," it became the duty of the Court of 
Quarter Sessions to procure a minister, settle him, "and order 
the charges thereof and of such minister's maintenance to be 
levied on the inhabitants of such town." 

Schools were required, as in the law of 1647, an elementary 
school throughout the year in towns of fifty or more families, a 
grammar school in addition if there were one hundred families 
or above. The law required that the schoolmaster be "suit- 
ably encouraged and paid," and for the first time included 
town officials in fixing responsibility for carrying out the pro- 
visions of the law. 44 In some respects the requirements were 
less severe than in 1683. The larger towns were no longer 
obliged to maintain two schools of each type, and the penalty 
for infraction was reduced from twenty pounds to ten pounds. 

But the spirit of the time was against enforcement. In 1701 
several important changes were made in an attempt to secure 
more adequate administration. The new law opened with a 
recitation of the provisions of the preceding measure which, 
it appears, "is shamefully neglected by divers towns, and the 
penalty thereof not required, tending greatly to the nourish- 
ing of ignorance and irreligion, whereof grievous complaint is 
made." 

In the revision of 1701 the following changes are most 
significant : 

The former penalty of twenty pounds, about one-fourth of 
a Grammar master's salary at this time, was restored. 

It was provided that the master should be approved by a 
special committee consisting of the minister of the town and 
the ministers of the two towns next adjacent. 

It was decreed that no minister should function also as a 
schoolmaster. 

Justices of the peace were to put the law in force, and grand 
jurors were enjoined to "diligently inquire and make present- 
ment of all breaches and neglect of said laws." 45 



44. The "selectmen" as well as the "inhabitants" were charged with the 
duty of supporting the schools and enforcing the law. 

45. Acts and Resolves, op. cit., p. 470. 



28 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOE 

The province law of 1701, practically closes the Colonial 
compulsory school legislation in Massachusetts. In the law 
itself is evidenced the growing apathy of the people towards 
the schools. Neglect of the legal requirements were common ; 
towns were openly failing either to maintain schools or to en- 
force the penalty; some must have sought to meet the letter 
of the law by constituting the minister schoolmaster; others 
had supplied their schools with teachers not able to meet the 
scholarship requirements. ''Schools were half neglected in 
many districts ; in a few they were totally neglected. 46 There 
is, to be sure, abundant evidence that certain towns were try- 
ing to enforce the law, but even here records often show the 
educational limitations of those who kept them. 47 

This period, running through the first quarter of the eight- 
eenth century, has been called "the dark days of New Eng- 
land," in education and social culture. Learning, so hopefully 
fostered by the fathers, had fallen upon evil days. 

The really big men of the earlier century, those with vision, 
had passed on. Men who, in the later years of the eighteenth 
century, were to give character to a new nation, had few proto- 
types in this troubled time. The hardships of frontier life, 
combat with savage beasts and men, with all Nature's hostile 
forces, had done their work. A generation had arisen that 
"knew nothing of a refined humanity, knew but little even of 
the justice which should let men go free." Here was a disease 
too deeply seated for compulsory school laws to reach, for such 
laws could not be put into action. 

46. Weedon, Economic and Social History of New England, p. 419. 

47. The following examples from the Watertown Becords are illustrative: 
' ' Willyam priest John Fisk and George Lorance being warned to a meet- 
ting of the select men at John Bigulah his house they makeing their a 
peerance: and being found defecttive weer admonished for not learning 
their Children to read the english tong: weer convenced did aeknowlidg 
their neglects and did promise a mendment." (Watertown Becords, p. 103, 
Dec. 13, 1670.) 

Again a committee of selectmen had been appointed to go through "their 
ceuerall quarters to make tyrall whether Children and servant be eaducated 
in Leameing." The report of the examining committee which follows is 
characteristic of many other entries made by those duly elected to "ceep 
the Towne boke." "nathan fisk, John whitney and Izack mickstur meack- 
ing return of thear in quiry aftur childrens eddvcation find that John fisks 
children ear naythur taught to reed not yet thear caticise." (Ibid., p. 114, 
Nov. 25, 1672.) 



THE COLONIAL PERIOD 29 

Prosperous times followed the years of stress and hardship 
in New England, and men were carried away with a passion 
for gain. Yet in the growing economic prosperity there was 
much of promise for education. On the surface there may have 
been little to offer encouragement, but there was stirring 
among men everywhere a spirit which presently manifested 
itself in the keen intellectual movement preceding the Revolu- 
tion. The old compulsory school laws were still nominally in 
force, but the schools they were intended to foster did not 
meet the needs of the new period. Democracy was developing ; 
it could not make use of the educational tools of a society 
organized with frank recognition of rank and class, so these 
old laws were never revived. Their principles remained to be- 
come the foundation of our modern compulsory legislation but 
could serve no other purpose until, in the first century of the 
national period, new economic and social conditions made it 
again possible for the state to lay a guiding, controlling hand 
on education. 



CHAPTER III 

EDUCATION AND CHILD LABOR IN THE 
EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD 

As stated in the introduction to this study, the history of the 
compulsory education of children and the regulation of their 
employment in the United States may be divided roughly into 
three periods. It is the purpose of this chapter to present a 
general view of the educational and industrial situation near the 
close of the first period, and to locate the problem of school 
attendance in its relation to labor at the opening of the second. 
In succeeding chapters, the advance through the second period 
and into the third will be traced in a small group of 
representative states. 

In the early years of our national life the small group of 
states that had developed systems of education in the colonial 
period provided for public schools either in their constitutions 
or by statute. In these provisions the principle of compulsion 
was less stressed than formerly. Connecticut had long before 
reduced the number of required grammar schools to one in 
each county. Now not even these were compulsory unless 
determined upon by a two-thirds vote of the community. 1 
Massachusetts, the stronghold of compulsory education from 
the beginning, in her constitution gave the legislature power 
to provide for the education of children and to compel their 
attendance at school. 2 The law establishing a state school 
system enacted in 1789 3 was largely a reenactment of the Pro- 
vince law, requiring a school in every community, but without 
attempt to regulate attendance. 

To a surprising extent the American public school system, 
free everywhere and almost universally compulsory, rests upon 
the early laws to regulate the labor of poor children and to 

1. Steiner, Hist, of Ed. in Conn., p. 35. Law of 1798. 

2. Const, of 1780, Art. Hi. 

3. Laws and Resolves of Mass., 1788-9, ch. 19. 

30 



EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD 31 

secure for them the elements of learning. In the later years 
of the eighteenth century, England discovered a new use for 
the children of this class. Those hitherto regarded as a burden 
upon society or upon their parents were found to have an 
appreciable money value as operators in the textile mills, 
where only dexterity and constant watchfulness were required. 
The story of England's shame in the exploitation of young 
children in her mills and factories is familiar. Not so -well 
known is her splendid battle, first, for the relief and elementary 
education of her poor, then, for the gradual development of 
an educational plan, now rapidly rounding out into an 
adequate national system fairly well adapted to the needs of 
every child, free, and compulsory. Neither story can detain 
us here ; both were roughly paralleled in the United States. 

There was nothing new in the English system of apprentic- 
ing the children of the poor; it had been going on for four 
hundred years. The "laudable custom" had been well es- 
tablished throughout the colonies. It was the new industrial 
condition which led to its serious abuse, and only time could 
reveal these evils. What the American people heard was news 
of prosperity, of greatly increased family earnings, of profit- 
able employment for women and children left destitute by the 
wars. Factories similar to those of England were being es- 
tablished in America. In the latter part of the eighteenth 
century, plans were under way in several states to utilize the 
labor of children. Alexander Hamilton, keen-minded, far- 
sighted master of finance, was active in fastening the curse of 
factory labor upon the children of the new republic. His 
communication of December 5, 1791, to the National House of 
Representatives is a clear statement of his attitude towards 
the employment of youth. 4 In it he emphasized the significance 
of the new machinery then coming into general use in the 
textile mills of England, by which, he said, all the processes 
involved in the spinning of cotton could be performed by a 
few machines, "attended chiefly by women and children." He 
argued that the establishment of these industries on a proper 
basis in this country would enable the industrious to devote 
their leisure time to this new work "as a resource for multiply- 



4. Works of Alexander Hamilton, Vol. Ill, p. 313; Henry Cabot Lodge, Ed. 



32 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

ing their acquisitions or their enjoyments," and notes the fur- 
ther advantage offered of the "employment of persons who 
would otherwise be idle, and in many eases a burden on the 
community." He continues: 

"It is worthy of particular remark that, in general, women 
and children are rendered more useful, and the latter more 
early useful, by manufacturing establishments, than they 
otherwise would be. Of the number of persons employed in 
the cotton manufactories of Great Britain, it is computed that 
four-sevenths, nearly, are women and children, of whom the 
greatest proportion are children, and many of them of a 
tender age." 5 

There is evidence that before this time the desirability of 
establishing factories had received considerable attention, and 
that their importance in affording employment to children, 
particularly to poor children, had not been overlooked. In a 
petition to the Massachusetts legislature in 1789 for power to 
incorporate for the manufacture of cotton it is recited, among 
other anticipated advantages, that "it will afford employment 
to a great number of women and children, many of whom will 
otherwise be useless, if not burdensome to society." 6 

It is possible that during the earlier years of factory de- 
velopment, the child at work in the mills was better cared for, 
morally and intellectually, than his neighbor not thus em- 
ployed. The public schools were in a low state of efficiency, 
and those most in need of free education would be the least 
likely to attend them unless compelled to do so. On the other 
hand, philanthropic manufacturers sometimes maintained 
"factory schools" for their young "apprentices." 7 To the 
point is the record of the efforts of the cotton manufacturer, 
Samuel Slater, in behalf of his youthful employees. In 1790 
he was in charge of a mill at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where 
children from seven to twelve years of age were employed, full 
time, six days in the week. Many of these were children of 
very poor parents, and "had had small opportunities for even 
an elementary education." 8 In the interests of these children 



5. Ibid., p. 314. 

6. Bagnall, The Textile Industries of the United States, p. 91. 

7. Bagnall, op. cit., p. 493. 

8. Bagnall, Samuel Slater and the Early Development of the Cotton Manu- 
factures in the United States, p. 49. 



EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD 33 

Mr. Slater established a Sunday school in his own home, at 
first teaching it himself, later securing as instructors students 
from Rhode Island College, now Brown University. Bagnall 
believes this to be the first Sunday school in New England. 
Like the early Sunday schools of England and the Continent, 
the aim of this school was not only to improve the morals of 
the children but to give them elementary instruction in the 
common branches of learning, also. 9 

With the restrictions upon imports arising from interrupted 
trade relations with England and ending with the close of the 
war of 1812, there came a rapid increase in the textile as well 
as other manufacturing industries. Factories sprang up wher- 
ever there was available water-power, and everywhere children 
were in demand. Active boys and girls from eight to twelve 
years of age seem to have been especially sought after, 10 though 
there is evidence that children even younger were employed. 11 
It is not to be supposed that the children of the poor alone took 
employment in the mills. Men who became prominent in the 
early textile industries had acquired the knowledge of the 
business as apprentices, and they did not hesitate to subject 
their own sons to the same experience. Bagnall says: 

"It was not then an exceptional fact that the children of 
farmers, mechanics, and manufacturers, in good pecuniary 
circumstances, should be employed at an age, and with a con- 
tinuity of labor, which at the present time would be regarded 
as a hardship, not to be imposed on young children, unless 
under the pressure of extreme poverty." 12 

It does not appear that the mill schools, dependent entirely 
upon the generosity or philanthropy of owner or agent for 
their inauguration and maintenance, were generally es- 
tablished ; yet they attracted sufficient attention to be accepted 
by many as a possible solution of the problem of educating the 
children of working people. 13 The consequences of calling con- 
siderable numbers of young children into steady, full-time em- 



9. Ibid. School established 1793. 

10. Bagnall, op. cit., pp. 197, 489. 

11. Woman and Child Wage-Earners in V. S., Vol. vi, pp. 49, 53. 

12. Op. cit., 512. 

13. For example, see Report of N. Y. Supt. of Common Schools to Legis- 
lature, Jan. 29, 1828, p. 13. 



34 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

ployment were beginning to appear. It was clear that to avoid 
the lapse of a large portion of society into gross ignorance, 
working children must be schooled. Connecticut led in the 
legislative program, by enacting a law looking to the welfare 
of factory children and requiring that they be given instruction 
in the common branches. 14 Col. David Humphreys, a philan- 
thropic manufacturer, a graduate of Yale, and formerly aid- 
de-camp to Washington, was the moving spirit in securing the 
law of 1813. 15 He employed in his mills at Humphreysville a 
considerable number of children, many of them "apprentices" 
from New York almshouses. His system for the education and 
training of these children attracted attention, and was de- 
scribed by President Timothy Dwight, of Yale, who visited the 
plant in 1811. 16 He was evidently more favorably impressed 
than was Josiah Quincy, who passed that way ten years earlier, 
and who found that the children appeared dull and dejected 
as they carried on their work "in a contracted room, among 
flyers and coggs, at an age when nature requires for them air, 
space, and sports." 17 But at any rate, the children in such 
mills as those of Slater and Humphreys, where they received 
the elements of an education, fared better intellectually than 
those of the same class not so employed. 18 These advantages 
Col. Humphreys sought to have extended to all the factory 
children of the state. The chief requirements of the law are : 

1. The management of factories to cause all children in 
their employ to be instructed in reading, writing, and arith- 
metic. 

2. Attention to be given to morals; regular attendance up- 
on public worship required. 

3. The selectmen of the town, or a committee appointed by 
them, required once a year "carefully to examine, and to 
ascertain whether the requisitions of this act which relate to 
the instruction and the preservation of the morals of children 
employed as aforesaid, be duly observed." 

4. Penalty for violation on the part of the mill manage- 



14. Conn. Laws, eh. 2. 

15. For an excellent sketch of Col. Humphreys' public service and private 
enterprise, see Bagnall, op. cit., pp. 347-359. 

16. Ibid., p. 352ff ; quoted from Dwight's Travels, Vol. Ill, p. 391. 

17. Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc, 2nd series, Vol. IV, p. 124. 

18. Eist. of Pub. Ed. in B. I., Stockwell, p. 38. 



EAKLY NATIONAL PERIOD 35 

ment, either discharge of the indentures in ease of apprenticed 
children or a fine of not to exceed one hundred dollars, at the 
option of the Court. 

There seems to be no evidence that any attempt was made 
to enforce this law. It may be regarded merely as the registra- 
tion of the wish of some of the more philanthropic manufac- 
turers expressed in legislation. There is little reason to be- 
lieve that there was, as yet, anything like a general recognition 
of the danger of employing young children during the time 
when society now agrees that the school should be given right 
of way. The law was permitted to remain upon the statute 
books until 1842, but its failure to provide either for schools 
or for adequate means of enforcement insured its ineffective- 
ness. 19 Henry Barnard, writing in 1840, reports the law "a 
dead letter in nearly, if not every town in the state." 20 

Toward the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth cen- 
tury a new force began to make itself felt in the economic and 
political life of the country. 21 Feebly in the earlier period, 
slowly and painfully trying out its strength, first through local 
societies, then by means of more extended organizations, labor 
sought to disentangle itself from the conditions which, since 
the breaking up of the feudal system, had held it apart as a 
class to be legislated for, controlled, patronized, restrained, 
dealt with in a spirit of kindly philanthropy or of aristocratic 
authority as might suit the situation. The movement was both 
political and economic, but it was educational also, and only 
after it was well under way was a complete state system of 
education, free and at the same time compulsory, a realized 
fact anywhere in America. Up to this time there had been 
no true democracy. The so-called democracy of the Revolution- 
ary period was aristocratic; it granted small power to the 
common man, 22 rather it patronized him, and in that spirit 
offered his children a mean and insufficient education which 
was not always accepted with becoming gratitude. 23 "Democ- 



19. Perrin, Eist. of Comp Ed. in New England, p. 37. 

20. Second An. Bpt. Commissioners of Com. Schools of Conn., p. 24. 

21. See J. E. Commons, Doe. Eist. of Am. Indust. Soc, Vol. V, pp. 20-23. 

22. Weyl, The New Democracy, Ch. 2. 

23. Bpt. Ed. Com. of New England Association of Farmers, Mechanics, etc., 
in Doc. Eist. Am. Indust. Soc, Vol. V, pp. 195-199. 



36 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

racy, a wage-earning class, and universal education," says F. 
T. Carlton, "are the social institutions which develop side by 
side out of the same soil, — one strengthens and protects the 
other." 24 This thesis seems abundantly verified in the educa- 
tional history of the last fifty years. 

It is not necessary to discuss the origin of the labor move- 
ment in this country. It seems not to have arisen from the 
factory movement, 25 yet it was powerfully stimulated by it. 
Industrial changes in the opening years of the century brought 
men together in large groups, socialized them, made them 
aware of common interests, and made economic and social 
comparisons more obvious. 26 The workman saw his children 
entering the mills, denied the opportunities for education en- 
joyed by the children of his employer, 27 and he began to ask 
what rights now monopolized by the capitalistic class he and 
his fellow workmen might hope to possess. As he sought to 
win a more favorable economic and social status for himself 
and his children, he found sympathy among his fellow-laborers 
and developed capacity to cooperate with them. Presently he 
found himself in possession of a new tool, the ballot, which he 
must learn to use in advancing his own interests and those of 
his neighbor. In most of the older states there had been a 
gradual extension of the suffrage ; in the newer ones, manhood 
suffrage was the rule; it was this universal extension of the 
ballot which gave character and virility to the labor move- 
ment and the allied forces of the period. It is significant that 
organized labor becoming conscious of power within itself 
should make as its first demand free and efficient schools sup- 
ported by a public tax. 28 

Before the working men were sufficiently organized to exert 
any considerable influence upon legislation, Massachusetts was 
becoming aware that an industrial-educational problem had 
arisen. Governor Levi Lincoln, in a public address, had ex- 

24. Education and Industrial Evolution, p. 5. 

25. Doc. Hist, of Am. Indust. Soc, Vol. V, p. 23. 

26. Towle, Factory Leg. of B. I., in Pub. Am. Econ. Assn., 3d series, Vol IX, 
p. 6. ' 

27. Outside New England public elementary education was only for the 
poor. Carlton, op. cit., p. 27. 

28. Doc. Hist. Amer. Indust. Soc, Vol. V, p. 27. 



EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD 37 

pressed the fear that the new industrial system would foster 
the formation of an uneducated class. At his suggestion, the 
Assembly authorized an investigation ; a committee was appoint- 
ed which, after a partial investigation, evidently conducted 
by means of a questionnaire sent to the manufacturers them- 
selves, submitted a report on June 16, 1825. 29 The committee 
found that in some cases two or three months a year were 
allowed for schooling. This apparently was not usual, how- 
ever, the report stating: 

"It appears that the time of employment is generally twelve 
or thirteen hours each day, excepting the Sabbath, which leaves 
little opportunity for daily instruction." 

The investigators did not believe their findings warranted 
action, saying: 

"The Committee are not aware that any interposition by 
the Legislature at present is necessary in this regard, but they 
deem it important that its members in their private and pub- 
lic capacity should see that the requirements of existing laws 
are respected and enforced." 30 

Apparently the committee was not impressed by the fact 
that young children were working for twelve and thirteen 
hours a day, nor did it discuss the effect that this early and 
prolonged labor might have on their health or on the health 
of future generations, though it did seem mildly concerned as 
to the intellectual status of those who might in their turn be- 
come proprietors of factories. 

In 1836, Massachusetts passed her first law designed both 
to limit the labor of young children and to provide for their 
education. It is not clear how much influence organized labor 
had in securing this legislation. The Working Men's Party 
had been active in the state and it is said that seven members 
of the legislature of 1833 were representatives of this organ- 
ization. 31 It may be assumed that these men and those who 
elected them had been active in the interests of their program 
for some years prior to 1836. There had been great changes 



29. Senate Archives No. S074, transcript, Doc. Hist. Am. Indnst. Soc, Vol. 
V, p. 57 ff. 

30. Ibid., p. 58. See also Otey, Woman and Child Wage-Earners in U. S., 
Vol. VI, p. 31. 

31. Persons, Labor Laws and Their Enforcement, p. 11. 



38 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

in the industrial conditions in Massachusetts and apparently 
a steady decline in educational ideals during the years of ex- 
pansion following the tariff of 1816. Perrin says: "Society 
was divided into sects and classes, not all of which espoused 
the cause of popular education. Some indeed antagonized such 
a system." 32 On the one hand, the employer was sometimes 
intolerant, unwilling to consider the desirability of a more in- 
telligent working class, feeling that his own prosperity de- 
pended upon an abundant supply of ignorant labor purchas- 
able at low wages. 33 On the other hand, the workers, en- 
couraged by union, were beginning to examine the industrial 
situation critically, and were becoming more outspoken. In 
1832 the committee on education of the New England Associa- 
tion of Farmers, Mechanics, and other Working Men, made an 
investigation or rather conducted an inquiry relative to the 
conditions under which children were employed in the manu- 
facturing industries. From their report the following may 
be deduced: 

1. Two-fifths of all persons employed in New England 
factories were children between seven and sixteen years of age. 

2. The hours of labor were from daylight to eight in the 
evening. 

3. Children could not be withdrawn from the mill to be 
put in school on penalty of the discharge of the other members 
of the family. 

_ 4. The only opportunity for children to obtain an educa- 
tion was on Sunday, and after half past eight in the evening 
of other days. 34 

The report of the committee representing the working men 
of New England stimulated activity in behalf of factory chil- 
dren in Massachusetts. In 1835, James G. Carter, at that time 
the leading exponent of advanced educational ideals in Massa- 
chusetts, entered the legislature. He was made chairman of 
the committee on education in the House. In 1836 this com- 
mittee was directed to consider what, if any, provision should 
be made for "the better education of children employed in 

32. Hist, of Comp. Ed. in New Eng., p. 41. 

33. Editorial, New York Morning Herald, Aug. 25, 1832, in Doc. Hist. Am. 
Indnst. Soc, Vol. V, pp. 113, 114. 

34. From the Free Enquirer, Boston, June 14, 1S32, in Doc. Hist. Am. 
Indust. Soc, Vol. V, pp. 195-199. 



EAKLY NATIONAL PERIOD 39 

manufactures." The committee found that in four of the 
manufacturing towns with a population of less than twenty 
thousand, nearly two thousand children under sixteen years 
of age were not attending school. It pointed out in its report 
that industry was demanding the service of young children, 
particularly girls, who could be secured at low wages; that 
parents had put their children in the mills through necessity; 
that the evils resulting from their employment must be cor- 
rected "with the least possible interference with the pursuits 
and interests of individuals." 35 

The committee recommended a bill which, strengthened 
slightly by the legislature, was enacted into law. 36 This 
measure was not so strong in form as the useless one placed 
upon the Connecticut statutes twenty-three years earlier. It 
consisted of two sections, the first providing that after April 
first, 1837, no child under fifteen should be employed in any 
manufacturing establishment unless it had attended some 
public or private day school, taught by a legally qualified 
teacher, for at least three months of the preceding year; the 
second section fixed a penalty of fifty dollars for infraction, 
to be forfeited by the offending factory owner, agent, or 
superintendent, for the use of the common schools. No pro- 
vision was made for the enforcement of the law, but to enable 
the manufacturer to protect himself an amendment in 1838 
provided that no person was to be held liable to the penalty 
if he obtained a certificate signed by the instructor in the 
school attended, duly sworn to before a justice of the peace, 
certifying that the child had received instruction as required 
by law. 37 This was the first form of schooling certificate, and 
also the beginning of the use of the affidavit as a means of 
verifying statements in connection with such certificates, a 
method later proving most mischievous. 

The one outstanding fact in connection with the so-called 
public free schools up to this time is that they were charity 
schools, growing in a perfectly natural way out of the English 



35. Persons, op. cit., p. 19. Woman and Child Wage-Earners in U. S., Vol. 
VI, p. 76. 

36. Mass. Laws, 1836, ch. 245. 

37. Mass. Laws, 1838, ch. 7. 



40 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

charity school of the eighteenth century, and roughly parallel- 
ing the later nineteenth century schools for the laboring class- 
es in that country. All these schools had their origin, if not 
in the English poor law, at least in the same combination of 
aristocratic philanthropy and fear of idle ignorance that made 
possible the evolution of that remarkable series of statutes. 
It may not be a cause for pride that we are able to trace the 
beginnings of our great public school systems to an origin so 
lowly, but the facts of history are fairly clear in this matter, 
and in most part point in the same direction. 38 There could 
be no whole-hearted cooperation of all social forces in the 
support of education until a common interest in its product 
was possible. It became one of the early tasks of organized 
labor to demonstrate the existence of that common interest. 
The first evidence Ave find of the promotion of educational 
legislation by an organization representing labor is in Rhode 
Island in 1799-1800. Rhode Island had jealously resisted any 
degree of state interference with cherished parental rights and 
privileges in the matter of education. One result, in addition 
to the fact that she had fewer schools than her sister states, 
was an unduly large proportion of native-born illiterates. 39 
In 1789 an organization known as the Mechanics' Association 
was formed which, through the influence of one of its members, 
John Howl and, a barber, interested itself in the establishment 
of a system of public schools. A law was secured in 1800, but 
met with little support; it was enforced in only one town, 
Providence, and was repealed at the end of three years. The 
law, though forced through a reluctant legislature by an or- 
ganization representing skilled labor, was not supported by 
the public ; it did not make any specific provisions for factory 
children, nor does there seem to be evidence that it was gener- 
ally demanded by the laboring classes. 40 For exactly a quarter 
of a century after the repeal of this act, Rhode Island remained 



38. Excellent illustrations are to be found in the History of the Public 
School Society of New YorTc City, Bourne; the History of Education in 
Pennsylvania, Wickersham ; the History of Public Education in Rhode 
Island, Stockwell; in the school laws of nearly all the original states, and 
in a great variety of scattered sources. 

39. Stockwell, Hist, of Pub. Ed. in E. I., pp. 11, 38, 57, 89. 

40. Towle, op. cit., p. 13. See the text of the law, Stockwell, op. cit., pp. 
19-21. 



EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD 41 

without a system of public education. Children whose parents 
could not afford to pay tuition in private schools were taught, 
if at all, in schools maintained by benevolent organizations of 
various kinds, in Sunday schools, and later in schools main- 
tained, at least in part, by lotteries. 41 In 1828, the foundation 
of the public school system was laid in a law permitting but 
not requiring towns to establish schools and to raise for their 
support a limited and quite inadequate sum by taxation. 42 The 
law of 1800 had made the establishment of schools compul- 
sory, hence its unpopularity; the later measure, having more 
regard for the traditions of the state, required nothing, did 
not permit heavy taxation, and was allowed to stand. 43 It 
does not appear that organized labor brought any special in- 
fluence to bear in the passage of this measure, but the fact that 
John Howl and had kept up an active interest in education 
gives some grounds for the presumption that it was a factor. 
At least there was a somewhat general demand for legislation, 
as shown by memorials presented from various parts of the 
state. 44 A year or two later, labor unions became very active 
in Rhode Island, as elsewhere, and, influenced by reforms in 
England, began to demand better working conditions for their 
children, asking also for some educational advantages. 45 In 
1838 a bill was introduced requiring that no child under twelve 
years of age be permitted to work in any factory unless he 
had attended school for three months during the preceding 
year. After successful blocking for two years by the manu- 
facturing interests, the bill became a law in January, 1840, 
but as no adequate provision was made for its enforcement, 
it was disregarded by all concerned. 46 

To a considerable extent the free school system of Pennsyl- 
vania grew out of the early nineteenth century labor agitation. 
In this state the pauper school idea was strongly entrenched. 
William Penn, the proprietary founder of the original colony, 
intended that both literary and industrial education should be 



41. Stockwell, op. cit., pp. 30-37. 

42. Ibid., p. 43. 

43. John Howland; quoted by Stockwell, op. cit., p. 46. 

44. Stockwell, op. cit., p. 43. 

45. Towle, op. cit., pp. 16-18. 

46. Ibid., p. 19. 



42 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

universal from the beginning, 47 but his ideals, though embodied 
in very definite compulsory education laws by the early As- 
semblies, 48 failed to lead to the establishment of schools. Racial 
and sectarian struggles rendered centralization in education 
impossible, and little remained at the end of the Colonial period 
but the single principle that the poor should be given an op- 
portunity for free instruction. A free school system for chil- 
dren of the poor was made obligatory in the year 1802. 49 This 
pauper school law, modified by later legislation, was the 
foundation upon which a universal system of education was 
to be built. Twenty years after its enactment, a committee 
was appointed to inquire into the extent to which it had been 
put into operation. 50 The report of this committee indicates 
that prior to the labor agitation of the succeeding decade the 
educational ideals of the Commonwealth were expressed, so 
far as free schools were concerned, in terms of public charity. 
The committee found that the schools were poor and few ; that 
attendance, due to the ''culpable neglect or mistaken pride of 
parents," was poor; and that the measure was "wholly in- 
operative in many of the counties of the Commonwealth and 
much abused in others." 51 The committee recommended the 
extension of the Lancastrian system of instruction, commend- 
ing it for its inexpensiveness, and urged upon the legislature 
the duty of providing instruction for the poor, saying in part: 

" 'Educate the poor' is one of the soundest maxims, one of 
the most important admonitions, which can reach, and dwell 
upon the mind of a republican law-giver." 52 

In 1824, evidence of another basis for public education be- 
gins to appear. In that year a bill providing for the education 
of children employed in the manufactories of the state was 
presented in the House, and though it did not pass and pre- 
sumably received scanty consideration, it at least drew at- 
tention to a growing educational need. 53 An inadequate free 



47. Frame of Government, XII; Laws, XXVIII. 

48. Laws of 1683, ch. 112. See Proud, Hist, of Penn., Vol. I, p. 345. 

49. Laws of 1802, eh. 34. 

50. Pennsylvania Documents, 1822, Report of Committee on Education, 
Senator Wurts, Chm. 

51. Ibid., pp. 23-24. 

52. Ibid., p. 24. 



EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD 43 

school law was enacted in this year, 54 but apparently it re- 
ceived little support, for it was repealed by the legislature at 
the session of 1826. 55 The following year a bill was presented 
which was intended to provide for an investigation into the 
extent and increase of manufacturies in the state and to ex- 
clude from them all children between twelve and eighteen 
years of age unless either receiving instruction or able to pro- 
duce a certificate signed by ''a respectable schoolmaster," or 
by "two reputable citizens" of the county, testifying to their 
ability to "read and write the English, German, or some other 
foreign language. 56 The bill of 1827 was actively opposed by 
the manufacturing interests on the grounds that it was un- 
necessary, undemocratic, and foreign to the spirit of the 
American government. 57 It was definitely supported by the 
Working Men's Party, the political expression of organized 
labor at this time, which was demanding better working con- 
ditions, shorter hours, and further : 

"That an open school and competent teachers for every child 
in the state, from the lowest branch of an infant school to the 
lecture rooms of practical science, should be established, and 
those who superintend them to be chosen by the people." 58 

In the following decade various forces, philanthropic, in- 
dustrial and political, were sufficiently united to secure legisla- 
tion providing for free schools throughout the state. The 
struggle of forty years, continuing for an additional twenty 
years before compulsory attendance was won, belongs to a 
later section of this study. 

In New York, as in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, work- 
ing men began to organize in the second and third decades of 
the century, and to demand better working conditions and 
shorter hours for their children. But apparently outside their 



53. Barnard, Factory Legislation in Tenn., 1907, pp. 1, 2. 

54. Laws, 1824, ch. 88. See also Venn. Magazine of History and Biography, 
Vol. XXXVII, p. 77. 

55. Laws, 1826, ch. 13. 

56. Barnard, op. cit., p. 2. If this bill, passed by the House but defeated 
by the Senate, had become law, Pennsylvania would have led all the states 
of the Union, with the exception of Connecticut, in child labor legislation. 

57. Ibid., p. 4. 

58. From questions asked candidates for election to State Legislature, 1829, 
in Doc. Hist. Am. Indust. Soc, Vol. V, p. 93. 



44 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

ranks the idea of equal educational opportunities for the chil- 
dren of the poor and the rich was not considered. Indeed, 
the early English idea of a charitable or philanthropic system 
of education for children of working men prevailed here longer 
than elsewhere in the north. Peculiarly offensive to the work- 
ing man of to-day would be the language used in a memorial 
to the legislature in 1805, seeking public support for the New 
York School Society, an organization which, for nearly half 
a century, was to educate a large proportion of the poorer 
children of that city: 

"The rich having ample means of educating their off- 
spring," the memorial proceeds, "it must be apparent that the 
laboring poor — a class of citizens so evidently useful — have a 
superior claim to public support." 59 

As the influence of labor increased some attention was paid 
to the children employed in the factories. It was recognized 
that these children, working long hours throughout the week, 
were not deriving any benefit from the public funds which at 
this time were distributed to various public school societies and 
corporations. In 1828 it was proposed to set aside a proper 
portion of these funds for the encouragement of mill schools 
where young children might receive instruction "during such 
hours as they could be released from labor." The hope was 
expressed that "By such means, and by the aid of Sunday 
schools, the inmates of these establishments would acquire a 
competent education, and protect these manufactories from the 
character which has been ascribed to similar establishments 
elsewhere, of being nurseries of ignorance and vice." 60 

Agitation by working men's organizations continued, and 
there were faint-hearted attempts to secure legislative pro- 
vision for the schooling of factory children. Nothing of a 
tangible nature was accomplished, however, until relatively 
late in the century. 

In the national period thus far studied there appears, first, 
the rise of the manufacturing industries and the new demand 
for the labor of young children, particularly in the textile 



59. Memorial to legislature, Feb. 25, 1805; in Bourne, Hist, of Pub. Sch. 
Soc., p. 3. 

60. Bpt. of State Supt. of Com. Schs. to Legislature, Jan. 29, 1828, p. 13. 



EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD 45 

mills. At first the children employed were from the poorer 
classes and the English-Colonial system of apprenticeship was 
frequently employed. Later, entire families moved to the mill 
towns, and the children joined their parents as bread-winners. 
Meanwhile education lagged and relatively large numbers of 
children were found to be growing up in ignorance. There 
was grave danger of an ignorant, debased factory class when 
once the neglected children of the mills came into maturity. 

Secondly, two new forces were developing which, joining 
themselves to a broad-minded faith in education representing 
the highest development of New England ideals, were to lead 
to state systems of free public schools; a growing democracy 
was expressing itself in a rapid extension of the suffrage ; work- 
ing men, newly enfranchised and learning to use their power, 
were demanding a measure of leisure for themselves and better 
educational opportunities for their children. These forces, 
guided and supported by men like James G. Carter, Horace 
Mann, Henry Barnard, Horace Greeley, and a host of others, 
were able to put under way a shadowy kind of compulsory 
schooling for those young children whom necessity drove to 
the factories. This was, in effect, class education. Thus far 
the aim of democracy had not been realized. But a great ad- 
vance had been made over the charity and philanthropic 
schools. The school and labor laws enacted in Connecticut, 
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, weak, unenforceable, purpose- 
ly shorn of features which might embarrass the employer, were 
forerunners of genuine compulsory education, adapted to the 
needs of all. It was to require long and persistent effort to 
dignify public education, render it adaptable to varying in- 
terests, subordinate to it temporary economic gain, and bring 
men to realize that the modern democratic state not only can, 
but must require an educated citizenship. Time was necessary 
for the development of the modern philosophy of education 
which demands for every child opportunity to realize under 
proper social guidance such capacities as he may potentially 
possess. The advance to present-day standards may now be 
traced in a representative group of states. 



CHAPTER IV 

MASSACHUSETTS 

A new period in the educational history of Massachusetts 
opened in 1837 with the enactment of the law creating a State 
Board of Education, 1 and the action of that body in calling 
Horace Mann to its secretaryship. 

One of the first duties set himself by the Secretary of the 
Board was to ascertain to what extent the school laws of the 
state were operative. He found that many of the specific 
educational duties which the state had laid upon local com- 
munities were persistently ignored by the officials charged 
with their execution. 2 One of these neglected requirements 
was that relating to school attendance. The law made it the 
duty of school committees, ministers, and selectmen to secure 
so far as possible the regular attendance of the youth upon 
the schools in their respective towns. The secretary found 
that these officials gave little attention to their duties, and that 
"the returns exhibit frightful evidence of the number of 
children who either do not go to school at all or go so little 
as not to be reckoned among the scholars. 3 

It must be remembered that the children Horace Mann found 
in the public schools, or, in so many instances, avoiding attend- 
ance upon them, were of very different stock from those for 
whom the laws were originally intended. Immigration had 
already changed the character of the population not a little, 4 
and with the incoming hosts of foreign speaking people, says 
John Cummings, "the number of destitute, ignorant, and 
criminal . . . increased until they began to press heavily upon 



1. Mass. Acts and Resolves, 1837, ch. 241. 

2. Mass. Sch. Rpt., 1838, pp. 31-36. 

3. Ibid., p. 38. 

4. In 1848, more than half the children in Boston primary schools were of 
foreign parentage. Lectures and Annual. Reports on Education, by Horace 
Mann, p. 749. 

46 



MASSACHUSETTS 47 

the ways and means of public charity. ' ' 5 The children of these 
people had little time for schooling, but were absorbed by the 
factories as soon as they were able to discharge the simple 
duties of spinner's helper. The common schools had failed to 
meet the changed social conditions and, though conceded by 
the educator, James G. Carter, to have improved during the 
national period, "they have," he said, "most certainly not kept 
up with the progress of society in other respects, . . . and there 
never was a time, since the settlement of our country, when 
the common schools were farther in the rear of the improve- 
ments of the age . . . than they are at the present moment." 6 

Even in Massachusetts, recognized leader in free education, 
the charity school long remained a conspicuous part of the 
educational system. Up to 1818 the capital of the state main- 
tained no public primary school. Since no child could be ad- 
mitted to the free city schools until able to read and write, 
and since there was a natural reluctance on the part of the 
poor to be identified with the pauper or charitable schools 
maintained by philanthropic groups or individuals, many 
children entered upon their work in shop or factory without 
having enjoyed any educational privileges whatever." 7 

Not until late in his secretaryship did Mann express a defi- 
nite interest in factory children. Even then he did not serious- 
ly attempt to solve the peculiar problems relating education 
and labor. Perhaps the other tasks to which he set himself 
and in which he so well served the broad cause of education, 
obscured the needs of the relatively small group of wage- 
earning children. 

"There are no exact data," he wrote, "by which to de- 
termine the number of children employed in the State. Com- 
pared with the whole number of children in it between the 
ages of four and sixteen, I suppose it to be inconsiderable ; so 
inconsiderable, indeed, that if their services . . . were to be 
henceforth wholly discontinued, it would subtract hardly an 
appreciable fraction from the aggregate products of our labor 
and machinery." 8 

5. Poor-Laws of Mass. and N. ¥., Pub. Am. Econ. Assn., Vol. X, p. 34. 

6. From Old South Leaflet, No. 135, 1824. 

7. Boston Town Becords, 87th An. Bpt., pp. 100, 105, 168; also Memorial 
Hist, of Boston, Vol. IV, p. 245. 

8. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1847, p. 116. 



48 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Mann held that all young children might well be withdrawn 
from industry and required to attend school for ten months 
each year. Though questioning the right of the state to in- 
terfere between parent and child, he did not hesitate to sug- 
gest restrictions upon employers, saying, "They use the 
services of children not their own, . . . and cannot intrench 
themselves behind the sacredness of parental rights." 9 

The Secretary commended the factory act of 1836 which re- 
quired children employed in factories to attend school twelve 
weeks each year, since, despite the lack of provisions for en- 
forcement, it had brought many children into school. 10 In his 
first report he complimented the factory owners and agents 
for their support of the measure, at the same time condemned 
parents who attempted to evade its requirements, and "who 
hold their children to be articles of property and value them 
by no higher standards than the money they can earn." 11 A 
marked difference was found between the larger manufactur- 
ers and the smaller in their attitude toward the law and the 
welfare of their child-employees. Among the latter the law 
was more likely to be evaded, in some places "uniformly and 
systematically disregarded." 12 The larger producers, on the 
contrary, not only obeyed the law, as a rule, but supported 
schools, in whole or in part, for the benefit of the children 
employed. 13 Horace Mann never became an enthusiastic ad- 
vocate of compulsory school attendance laws. He wanted all 
children to be in school, and carried their interests on his 
heart constantly, yet he was reluctant to sacrifice what he held, 
with many other students of political science of his period, to 
be a principle of American democracy, the right of the parent 
to determine what his child should do. The evil of non- 
attendance, to which Mann constantly referred in his reports, 
he preferred to fight by other means than compulsion, though 
after a personal survey of European systems, particularly of 
the Prussian system which he greatly admired, he became re- 






9. Ibid., p. 118. 

10. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1838, p. 67. 

11. Ibid. 

12. Ibid., 1839, p. 42. 

13. Ibid. 



MASSACHUSETTS 49 

signed to the idea of state interference as the final solution of 
irregularity and non-attendance in this country. 14 

There is small probability that a general law requiring the 
attendance at school of children of all classes could have been 
enforced during the period of Horace Mann's public service 
in Massachusetts. Interest in education was not sufficient at 
that time to secure accommodations for the children who, un- 
stimulated by law, sought admission to the schools. Secretary 
Mann describes a school, typical of the less progressive parts 
of the state, in a village where two hundred children between 
the ages of seven and sixteen were receiving instruction in a 
single school room with a seating capacity of forty. The pupils 
were divided into five groups, each group being permitted to 
attend school for a period of ten weeks each. In his report 
Mr. Mann characterizes this school as so bad that "in two or 
three important particulars there was little possibility of its 
becoming worse." 15 Compulsory attendance legislation under 
such conditions would, of course, have been meaningless. 

In 1842, significant changes were made in the labor- 
attendance law. 16 Heretofore there had been no responsibility 
for enforcement; now this duty was laid upon the local school 
committees of the state, who were authorized to prosecute for 
all violations, the penalty recovered to go to the person prose- 
cuting. Of greater importance, however, was a provision re- 
stricting the labor in factories of all children under twelve 
years of age to ten hours in one day, thus marking the first 
victory of organized labor in its long fight for a shorter work- 
ing day. 17 The interests of manufacturers were carefully 
guarded by providing that in case of supposed violation the 
prosecution must prove that the employer had "knowingly" 
employed a child under twelve years of age for more than 
ten hours in one day. 18 



14. Mass. Sch. Spt., 1847, pp. 107-135. 

15. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1839, p. 38. 

16. Mass. Acts and Resolves, 1842-43, ch. 60. 

17. In this year Connecticut limited to ten hours the working day of all 
factory children under fourteen. 

18. This seems to be the first use of the word "knowingly" in this connec- 
tion. Its use in child labor laws continued for half a century to be a 
favorite device for "pulling the teeth" from measures which otherwise 
might have proven embarrassing to employers. 



50 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

The general question of school attendance was scarcely 
touched by the laws thus far enacted, the children affected by 
them representing but a small proportion of the entire number. 
Statistics bearing on this subject, not only here but in other 
states, are of little value. It is clear, however, that the schools 
were poorly patronized, and that the attendance of many 
pupils enrolled was extremely irregular. Mann estimated in 
1841 that about sixty per cent of the children between four 
and sixteen years of age attended some school, public or 
private, for a part of the year. 19 He deplored the indifference 
of parents, a "most fearful and wide-spread epidemic," and 
suggested a remedy which, throughout his secretaryship, he 
continued to advocate; namely, that all children be required 
by law either to attend school regularly or suffer complete 
exclusion. 

"There would be no hardship," he said, "or ground of com- 
plaint in the adoption and enforcement of a code of rules for 
all our schools, which would bring all parents to an option, 
either to send their children to school regularly, or to keep 
them away regularly, — extraordinary cases, of course, being 
excepted." 20 

Again, recommending this method several years later, Mr. 
Mann remarked: "The measure has proved highly remedial 
wherever adopted." 21 This summary method of dealing with 
the irregular pupil did not commend itself to the legislature; 
instead, a law was enacted in 1850 with the object of control- 
ling truancy. Since 1642 Massachusetts had made provision 
for the public control of idle and unruly children and those 
for whom parents neglected to provide suitable employment. 
Not much use was made of these statutes and the evils of 
truancy, especially in the larger cities, had become very 
evident. Boston, in 1845, under the leadership of its vigorous 
mayor, Josiah Quincy, entered upon a spirited campaign 
against it. 22 An investigation made in that city attracted state- 
wide attention/the newspapers entered into the discussion, and 

19. Mass. Sell. Bpt., 1841-42, pp. 21-22. 

20. Ibid,, p. 23. 

21. Ibid., 1845, p. 29. Henry Barnard in Rhode Island had made a similar 
recommendation. 

22. Perrin, op. cit., p. 46 ff. 



MASSACHUSETTS 51 

in 1849 a bill dealing with the subject was presented to the 
legislature. On the grounds that parental rights were 
threatened, this bill was defeated, 23 but the following year, 
backed by the teachers of the state and also by an aroused 
public, favorable action was secured, 24 each town and city 
being authorized to make "all needful provisions and arrange- 
ments concerning habitual truants, and children not attending 
school, without any regular and lawful occupancy, growing 
up in ignorance, between the ages of six and fifteen years." 25 
Large power as to details was given to the individual towns, 
which were to provide for suitable penalties, to make necessary 
by-laws, and to secure the appointment of three or more per- 
sons who alone were vested with power to make complaints 
of violation and carry out the judgments of the court. 28 In 
lieu of a fine, in no case to exceed twenty dollars, the justice 
might order a child to be placed in a reformatory or "other 
suitable situation." In 1852, confinement in the county jail 
was indicated in an amendment as a proper disposition of a 
truant child. 27 One year was made the maximum period of 
confinement in either reformatory or jail. 

The entire spirit of this law seems to be that of punishment 
rather than reformation. Eecords show that it was but 
sparingly enforced, reflecting credit upon the towns and their 
justices, with whom a fine or a sentence of a few months in 
jail or reformatory as a punishment for a wayward or neglect- 
ed child evidently found little favor. 

Up to this time there had been little change in the spirit of 
the compulsory laws since the seventeenth century. Indeed, 
one is not sure that there had been great advance since the 
old English statute of Henry IV, requiring all children over 
twelve years old to be at work or in school. 28 But in 1852 a 
distinct legislative advance was made in the enactment of the 
first general compulsory attendance law in America. 29 In 1844 



23. Ibid., p. 50. 

24. Acts and Besolves, 1850, ch. 294. 

25. From text of law. 

26. The first truant officers. 

27. Acts and Besolves, 1852, ch. 283. 

28. 7 Henry IV, c 17; supra, p. 10, Ch. I. 

29. Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1852, ch. 240. 



52 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

it had been proposed to amend the labor-attendance require- 
ments to include all children under sixteen employed in fac- 
tories, to extend the term of compulsory schooling to three 
months, and to provide for a more reliable certificate of attend- 
ance. 30 This measure did not receive a favorable hearing. In 
1849 the law of 1836 as amended, was officially interpreted to 
mean that the written statement of the parent that the child 
had reached the age of fifteen at the time of employment was 
sufficient proof of age, unless it could be shown that the em- 
ployer was aware that such statement was false. 31 There were 
other attempts to advance the interests of children about this 
time, 32 but the compulsory attendance act of 1852 overshadows 
everything else of this character. Its provisions were: 

1. Every child between eight and fourteen was to attend 
some public school for at least twelve weeks each year, six 
weeks to be consecutive. 

2. To this there were several exceptions, as : attendance for 
a like period upon some other school or upon other means of 
instruction; evidence that the common school branches had 
already been mastered; a state of mind or body that would 
prevent attendance: or poverty of the parent or guardian. 

3. The penalty for infraction was a fine of not to exceed 
twenty dollars. 

4. Violators were to be prosecuted by the city treasurer. 

It was made the duty of the local school committee to in- 
quire into all eases of violation, ascertain the reasons, if any, 
and report annually to the town. \ They had no authority to 
enforce the law, and as the treasurer would naturally have no 
direct interest in such duties, very little might be expected 
from the measure. Indeed, there is no evidence that it in- 
creased attendance appreciably. Perrin says of it: "From the 
day of its enactment until 1873 the history of the law is little 
more than a record of failures." 33 Yet the attempts to put 
the law into operation in various parts of the state, particular- 
ly in the decade following the Civil War, kept the subject of 
school attendance before the people and served as a means of 



30. Leg. Doc, 1844, Senate, No. 41 ; Otey, op. cit., p. 82. 

31. Leg. Doc, 1849, House, No. 95. 

32. Leg. Doc, 1851, House, No. 179. 

33. Perrin, op. cit., p. 57. 



MASSACHUSETTS 53 

educating public opinion. Besides, the fact that Massachusetts, 
the recognized leader in education in the sisterhood of states, 
had enacted a law requiring the attendance of all her children 
upon the means of education exerted a powerful influence upon 
legislation in the younger states where, fortunately, the actual 
operation of the law was not critically examined, the principle 
only receiving attention. 34 

The forces back of the law of 1852 appear to have been 
political, including the influence of organized labor, and 
philanthropic, rather than educational. Horace Mann had con- 
vinced the press and doubtless the political and social leaders 
of the evils of non-attendance, but he had not asked that all 
children be forced into school by law. It does not appear that 
anything so radical was contemplated by the State Board of 
Education nor the local school committees, 35 while there is 
reason to believe that teachers regarded the influx of unwilling 
children with distinct disfavor. 36 Mann's successor in office 37 
certainly did not encourage compulsory attendance measures; 
indeed, he implies, in his first report, that the situation was not 
alarming. 38 The following year, to be sure, he was in the way 
of conversion to Mann's view, saying: 



34. Illustrated in the compulsory laws of Michigan, 1871; Kansas, 1874; 
Ohio, 1877; and Wisconsin, 1879; all enacting laws very similar to that of 
Massachusetts. 

35. Mass. Sch. Bpt, 1863, p. 79. 

36. IUd., 1870, abstracts, p. 58. 

37. Barnas Sears. 

38. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1849, p. 33. Secretary Sears had some foundation for 
his belief that the conditions prevailing in factories had been misrepre- 
sented. The first official investigation of working conditions in Massachu- 
setts factories was made in 1845. (Mass. House Document No. SO, March, 
1845 ; in Doc. Hist, of Am. Indust. Soc, Vol. VIII, p. 133 ff.) The special 
committee to which was referred sundry petitions from labor groups praying 
that a shorter day and better working conditions be guaranteed by law, 
conducted hearings, took testimony, and visited factories. The report was 
so favorable to the factories as to raise the question of bias. It indicates 
that there were children in the mills, but that they were required to spend 
some three months of each year in school if younger than fifteen. At 
Lowell, for example, few less than fifteen years of age were found, nine- 
tenths of the employees, the committee reported, being farmers' daughters, 
of whom they said: "Their education has been attended to in the district 
schools, which are dotted like diamonds over every square mile of New 
England. Their moral and religious characters have been formed by pious 
parents, under the parental roof. Their bodies have been developed, and 
their constitutions made strong by pure air, wholesome food, and youthful 
exercise." Ibid., p. 143. 



54 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

"The non-attendance of a part of those children for whose 
benefit the Public Schools are especially intended ... is assum- 
ing a fearful importance ; and it will not be safe long to delay- 
such measures as may be necessary to avert the impending 
danger." 39 

Yet neither here nor elsewhere in his published reports and 
recommendations does Secretary Sears ask directly for a law. 40 
It would seem that educational influences, either individual or 
corporate, were of minor importance in shaping legislative pro- 
grams in this formative period. That an influential political 
element proposed to go even further than to require school 
attendance is evidenced in a message of Governor Henry J. 
Gardner to the legislature, in which he suggested an amend- 
ment to the constitution denying the suffrage to all unable to 
read and write. 41 

Both industry and education were greatly disturbed by the 
Civil War, and no important legislation affecting either school 
attendance or the labor of children was under serious con- 
sideration until its close. It is not to be supposed that educa- 
tion was neglected during the period of the war; quite the 
contrary. Though there was a falling off at first, in the state 
appropriation for schools, it was followed by a steady gain 
until, in the year 1864-65, the total sum appropriated was more 
than double that of any year preceding the great struggle. 42 
But the towns and cities felt the war keenly. They were called 
upon to sacrifice both life and treasure, and the schools, of 
course, suffered. In many cases parents were obliged to keep 
their children at home to assist in the work. In other cases 
young children were employed in factories in open violation 
of the law, while in some parts of the state mills had been 
obliged to reduce their working forces and the children, thrown 
out of employment, unwilling to enter school, often unwanted 



39. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1850, p. 29. 

40. That the Board of Education approved the compulsory measure of 1852 
might be inferred from the following statement in its report of 1853 regarding 
the general efficiency of the educational machinery: "The system itself 
needs at present no modifications. It attracts the admiration of surround- 
ing states and nations, and needs only to be vigorously managed to secure 
incalculable advantages. ' ' Ibid., 1853, p. 6. 

41. Sen. Doc., 1855, No. 3, p. 17. 

42. Sen. Doc., 1856, No. 3, p. 19. 



MASSACHUSETTS 55 

because difficult to grade and classify, were added to the 
chronic idlers. 4,3 The truancy law of 1850, slightly modified 
in 1852 and 1859, had given towns power to make and enforce 
the necessary by-laws for the control of delinquent children. 
Towns had quite generally failed to exercise their authority, 
and even now, when truancy and idleness had become more 
frequent than ever before, they would not take the necessary 
steps to deal with it. The need was recognized clearly enough, 
and the law, though awkward in its method of administration, 
might have been made operative, but the typical citizen of 
Massachusetts did not wish to have his own conduct too close- 
ly limited by law, nor did he wish to regulate that of his 
neighbor. His attitude is probably fairly expressed in the re- 
port of the secretary of a town school committee, who, after 
noting the extent to which the laws were violated in his com- 
munity, added: 

"'Would that adequate means might be devised, without the 
resort to legal proceedings, for the complete prevention of a 
practice which, if continued till it becomes a habit, so often 
leads to the commission of crime." 44 

In 1862 the truancy law was amended, making it mandatory 
upon the towns and cities to care for their delinquent 
children. 45 Still there were no means to coerce a community, 
and at the end of three years only seventy-seven of the three 
hundred and. thirty-five towns had fully met the require- 
ments. 46 Massachusetts lost years of valuable time in the vain 
hope that without invoking the aid of a law with power be- 
hind it, she might nurse her delinquent children and still more 
delinquent parents into voluntary conformity with her lofty 
ideals of education. 

Conditions became so serious that on the recommendation 
of the Secretary of the Board of Education a legislative in- 
vestigation was made in 1863, by the joint committee on 
education. It was found that about one-fourth of all the towns 
in the state were violating the law requiring that an elementary 

43. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1862, p. 51. 

44. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1863, p. 79. 

45. Mass. Acts and Resolves, 1862, ch. 207. 

46. Perrin, op. cit., p. 54. 



56 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

school be maintained for at least six months each year,* 7 and 
that only one-half the towns legally required to support high 
schools were obeying the law. 48 To meet this situation, the 
legislature provided that no town failing to meet the state 
regulations be allowed to share in the state funds.* 9 At the 
same time it was provided that towns participating in state 
funds be required to raise by local tax a minimum of three 
dollars per child instead of one and a half dollars, as before. 50 
With the restoration of industry folloAving the war many 
children were drawn into the factories. There was much 
poverty everywhere, and children who should have been in 
school responded to the call for cheap labor. There is abundant 
evidence that children were now working in the mills under 
less favorable conditions than formerly, and in larger 
numbers. 51 Another investigation was now undertaken by a 
joint legislative commission which had been directed "to col- 
lect information and statistics in regard to the hours of labor, 
the condition and prospects of the industrial classes." This 
commission first sought information by questionaries, then 
public hearings were held in various parts of the state, usually 
at night, in order to accommodate the working men. The 
commission evidently conducted its work in a thorough and 
painstaking way, and as a result was able to lay before the 
legislature an accurate description of the industrial situation 
of the time. 52 It found the child labor laws to be quite general- 
ly ignored. Children no more than seven years of age were 
found at work in the mills. In one town, 652 between eight 
and fourteen, most of them entirely illiterate, were at work. 
The ten-hour law was ignored, the working day being length- 
ened in many cases to eleven hours. The commission saw no 
hope for relief in the existing laws which local authorities 



47. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1862-63, p. 44. 

48. Ibid., pp. 52, 53. The violation of the high school law had particularly 
distressed the Secretary. He wrote feelingly of the measure, ' ' most vener- 
able for age, inherited from the time of Endicott and Dudley, most wise 
and humane in its intent, and most beneficial in influence wherever obeyed. ' ' 
Ibid, p. 53. 

49. Mass. Laws, 1865, ch. 142. 

50. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1863-64, p. 101. 

51. Ibid., 1864-65, p. 65. 

52. Leg. Doc, House, 1866, No. 98. 



MASSACHUSETTS 57 

would not enforce, saying: "We are rushing into the same 
fearful condition in which England found her manufacturing 
districts years ago." 

To meet this situation, the commission recommended a 
system of half-time schools, every child employed in a factory 
to spend half of the day in school and half in the factory or 
mill. 53 It was recommended that the period of compulsory 
attendance be made six months instead of three. The com- 
mission recognized that the working day was too long, yet it 
went on record against an eight-hour day, suggesting as a 
possible solution a mutual agreement upon a ten-hour day. 54 
One of the most important recommendations was that the child 
labor law be enforced by a state officer. 

The legislature of 1866 went beyond the recommendations 
of the commission in certain respects, the law of that year 
requiring : 55 

1. That no child under ten years of age be employed in any 
manufacturing establishment. 

2. That all employees between ten and fourteen attend some 
school approved by the local school committee for not less than 
six months each year. 

3. That none under fourteen be employed for more than 
eight hours in one day. 

4. That anyone knowingly employing a child not meeting 
the age and schooling conditions be subject to a penalty of 
fifty dollars, parents now being equally responsible with 
employers. 

5. That the governor be authorized to instruct the state 
constable to enforce all laws regulating the employment of 
children. 

This measure, still weak in several vital respects, was de- 
cidedly in advance of any legislation heretofore enacted in this 
country, 56 but it had outrun public opinion, at least so far as 
controlled by commercial interests. The next year the law was 
revised, bringing it more nearly in line with the original 

53. A system at one time highly esteemed in England, but later regarded 
as a mischievous expedient. 

54. The legal day was already ten hours for children under twelve. 

55. Mass. Laws, 1866, ch. 273. 

56. Perrin, op. cit., p. 43. 



58 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

recommendations of the commission of 1865. The new law 57 
reduced the term of compulsory school attendance to three 
months, but raised the upper limit to the age of fifteen, and 
provided for half-time schools. It included mechanical as well 
as manufacturing establishments in the restrictions of the law, 
abandoned the eight-hour day, substituting a maximum of 
sixty hours a week, and provided that the state constable 
should detail one of his deputies to enforce all laws relating 
to the employment of children. 

In the abstract, the law of 1867 was distinctly a step back- 
ward. Possibly it was as strong a measure as the time war- 
ranted. At any rate it was approved by the Secretary of the 
Board of Education who endorsed the reduction of required 
school attendance from six months to three, on the grounds 
that it was thus "made to conform to the terms of a large 
majority of our Public Schools, and will not only secure a 
more profitable employment of the time devoted to study, 
but also give better opportunities for labor and thus tend to 
the formation of habits of industry." 58 

Mr. Henry K. Oliver, an experienced factory manager, was 
made deputy state constable in charge of enforcement. 59 
General Oliver faced certain grave difficulties as he undertook 
the work of enforcing laws which, in somewhat less definite 
form, had been neglected or ignored for a generation. In some 
places he found school accommodations so limited that not all 
the children of the compulsory age could be cared for except 
on the installment plan. He found mill owners indifferent or 
hostile; parents resentful at the prospect of interference with 
their affairs, frequently so poor that if deprived of the earn- 
ings of their children they would be unable to support their 
families. 60 Mr. Oliver at once sought to inform himself as to the 
exact conditions prevailing in the manufacturing centers. His 
first report reveals a disheartening state of affairs. At Fall 
Eiver he estimated there were a thousand young children in 
the factories, "very ignorant, some not knowing their own 



57. Mass. Laws, 1867, ch. 285. 

58. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1868, p. 48. 

59. Mr. Oliver was a highly educated man, a former teacher, publicist and 
lecturer, and had served as Adjutant-General of the state. 

60. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1869, pp. 292, 300. 



MASSACHUSETTS 59 

ages." He describes a place where twenty-five children of 
both sexes were found ■ ' employed in a basement room in which 
the air was hardly fit to breathe, and the floor, of stone, always 
wet and cold. ' ' The children were barefooted, ill-clad, unclean, 
and pale looking, earned very low wages, and had not had the 
proper school privileges. 61 He sets out at some length the 
attitude of some of the employers, quoting one as saying : 

"I regard my work-people just as I regard my machinery. 
So long as they can do my work for what I choose to pay them, 
I keep them, getting all out of them I can. What they do, or 
how they fare, outside of my walls, I don't know, nor do I 
consider it my business to know. When my machines get old 
and useless, I reject them and get new, and these people are 
part of my machinery." 62 

Another expressed a common sentiment when he said he 
thought "the State was meddling with what it had no right 
to interfere with, and was making unjustifiable investigations 
into the private business of corporations." 63 In his second 
and last report, 64 General Oliver admits inability to enforce 
the law which he had found to be one of "words and threats 
and penalties," a "form of verbal prohibitions," not intended 
to function. The insertion of the word "knowingly," he says, 
offers a "loop-hole of retreat ample enough for any transgres- 
sor." The cases prosecuted had resulted in failure to secure 
conviction or in successfully continued appeals. Even in one 
case where the employer had pleaded guilty and had been 
fined, an appeal was taken and the entire matter held up. He 
found school committees and superintendents who might have 
aided him, lacking in courage and disposition to cooperate. He 
enumerates the most serious defects to be: 

1. No power to secure evidence of violation. 

2. No power to enter and inspect places of employment. 

3. No specific provision for court jurisdiction nor for man- 
ner of prosecution. 

4. No form of age and schooling certificate to be kept on 
file by the employer. 65 



61. Oliver's first report, Sen. Doc. No. 21, 1868, p. 22. 

62. Ibid., p. 23. 

63. Ibid., p. 24. 

64. Sen. File, 1869, No. 44. 

65. Ibid., p. 17. 



60 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

In both reports Mr. Oliver wrote with much feeling, showing 
himself a philanthropist, thoroughly interested in the children 
and distressed by the situation in which he found them. But 
as yet few reliable statistics had been obtained. He under- 
took to study the conditions by means of questionaries, but 
received replies from only about one-third of the establish- 
ments addressed. The data from these were of little value, but 
from them one may conclude that the laws were pretty general- 
ly violated, that the courts were not in full sympathy with en- 
forcement, and that conditions under which children were at 
work had been growing worse as the number employed 
increased. 

General Oliver resigned at the end of his second year to be- 
come chief of the Bureau of Statistics and Labor which had 
been created by legislative action on June 23, 1869. 66 While 
he accomplished little or nothing in a direct way as enforcing 
officers, his reports, filled with classical references and illumi- 
nated with selections from Shakespeare and other poets, lack- 
ing in specific facts though they are, constitute a valuable con- 
tribution to the literature of child labor. His field work marks 
the beginning of inspection, though it required twenty years 
to create, in the more indifferent communities, a proper respect 
for the law. 

It now began to be more generally realized that the interests 
of working children were bound up closely with those of adult 
labor. Mr. Oliver had found that the provision that children 
should work no more than sixty hours a week was violated 
largely because manufacturers found it difficult to adjust sucH 
a schedule to the longer one of adults. He advocated a uni- 
versal ten-hour day as the proper solution of the difficulty. A 
group of noted men had now allied themselves with the labor 
movement. Wendell Phillips had become active in the agitation 
for shorter hours and better working conditions and had lent 
his sympathetic aid to the legislative campaign in 1866 and 
1867. 67 Garrison, Gerrit, Stone, and others were joining in a 
renewed effort for shorter hours. Bills for a ten-hour day, 

66. Acts and Besolves, 1869, ch. 102. This was the first organization of the 
kind in the United States. 

67. Persons, Labor Laws and Their Enforcement, p. 102. 



MASSACHUSETTS 61 

strongly backed by the united forces, were introduced and 
passed the House in 1871, 1872 and 1873, only to be defeated 
in the Senate, where the manufacturers were well entrenched. 
In 1874 additional light was thrown on the labor situation in 
a further report; 68 the Governor, now actively interested, 
joined in recommending action, and in 1874 the nearest ap- 
proach to a ten-hour law that could be forced through the 
legislature was enacted. 69 It was made illegal to employ a 
minor under eighteen or a woman over that age in any manu- 
facturing establishment for more than ten hours a day, except 
that a different apportionment of time might be made, in which 
case the time of employment might not exceed sixty hours in 
one week. Again the manufacturers were protected and the 
efficiency of the law largely destroyed by the provision that 
the penalty, fifty dollars, apply in case of willful employment 
in violation of the requirements. 70 

Meantime, without much regard to the requirements of the 
child labor laws, the attendance laws were being modified. In 
1868 the law permitting evening schools and fixing the mini- 
mum age of admission at fifteen was so amended as to admit 
children at twelve ; thus three years of the compulsory school- 
ing might be obtained while the child was working full time 
in a factory. 71 In 1873 the general compulsory attendance law 
was rewritten. 72 The required period of annual attendance 
was increased from twelve weeks to twenty, but the upper age 
limit was reduced from fourteen to twelve, thus increasing the 
total period of compulsory attendance but eight weeks. 73 All 
the former exceptions were retained, 74 and to them was added 
attendance at a half-time school. Enforcement was now taken 
from the city and town treasurers and confided to truant 
officers acting under local school committees. This provision, 
together with a definite determination of the jurisdiction of 

68. Sen. Doc, 1874, No. 33. 

69. Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1874, ch. 221. 

70. In the revision of 1876 the words willfully and knowingly were dropped 
from the law. See Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1876, ch. 52. 

71. Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1S69, eh. 305. 

72. Ibid., 1873, ch. 279. 

73. Advanced to age of fourteen in 1874. 

74. Supra, p. 52. 



62 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

the courts, made it possible to prosecute with some hope of 
success. 

At the same legislative session the truant law, originally 
enacted in 1850, was revised, 75 making it obligatory upon 
towns and cities to provide suitable places for the "confine- 
ment, discipline, and instruction" of truant children between 
seven and fifteen years of age. It required county commission- 
ers, on request of three or more cities, to establish and main- 
tain truant schools at convenient places other than the jail or 
house of correction. The law also required school committees 
to appoint truant officers, no longer awaiting town action in 
the matter, such officers to have sole authority to make com- 
plaints and to carry out the judgments of the court. Truancy 
was no longer to be punished by fine, but the delinquent child 
was to be committed to an institution "or some other suitable 
situation," for a period not to exceed two years. Both the 
compulsory attendance and truancy acts were revised in 1874, 
the upper age limit for attendance being restored to fourteen 
and truant officers being given slightly more power. 76 

The laws enacted between 1866 and 1874 mark a notable 
advance in public sentiment, yet measured by modern stand- 
ards they were exceedingly defective. All standards were 
low ; responsibility for enforcement, except in a few instances, 
was not fixed; the half-time school was encouraged; no ad- 
equate age and schooling certificate was provided; inspection 
was lacking; there was lack of harmony in the requirements 
of the labor and the attendance laws. But no law at all ad- 
equate by later standards could have gained a hearing at that 
time. Every advance was made against odds. The common 
school authorities who might have been expected to fight for 
the interests of the children of the common people were neutral 
if not hostile. They did not want the poorly trained, uncul- 
tured child of the factory and workshop in their well-ordered 
schools. They admitted they could do little for him. The 
attitude of the local school committees and teachers is here 
expressed by a representative superintendent: 



75. Mass. Acts and Eesolves, 1873, ch. 262. 

76. Mass. Acts and Eesolves, 1874, ch. 233. 



MASSACHUSETTS 6.3 

"Without any habits of study, unused to school order and 
discipline, coming by compulsion and not by choice, with no 
prospects of remaining longer than the law requires, and join- 
ing classes for which they had no real fitness, disqualified them 
for membership. The admission of such persons into our 
graded schools has embarrassed them." 77 

Another school superintendent recognized the pressing need 
of the mill children, but opposed the enforcement of laws 
which would bring them into the day-school, recommending 
instead the opening of evening schools, which he believed 
would be "hailed with joy by their parents, as a favorable 
opportunity for them to acquire the rudiments of an education 
without intermitting the labors on which the families to which 
they belong practically depend for subsistence." 78 

The Secretary of the State Board himself found in the 
poverty and need of the people an almost insuperable obstacle 
to the education of their children, saying: 

"Experience has shown that there is found, in the larger 
towns and cities especially, a considerable number of children 
extremely poor, whose daily earnings are absolutely necessary 
to keep the family from starvation or the almshouse." 79 

Carrol D. Wright, made Chief of the Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics in 1874, differed sharply from the educational authorities 
regarding the treatment to be given children of the working 
people, saying: 

"Personally, we believe in the extremest legislation in this 
direction, and could we have the power given us, we would 
not allow a girl under sixteen to be employed in any kind of 
a factory or workshop. If she could be free till she reached 
the age of twenty, mankind would be the gainer." 80 

General Oliver, as Chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 
had failed to gain the confidence of organized labor or of the 
politicians. 81 He had found children in large numbers, un- 
schooled and working under unsanitary conditions, subjected 
to the indignities of brutal overseers. But he had failed to 



77. Bpt. Mass. Bd. of Ed., 1870, Abstracts, p. 58. 

78. Ibid., pp. 44-45. 

79. Ibid., p. 10. 

80. Bpt. Bu. Stat, of Lab., 1874, p. 6. 

81. Sen. Doc, 1873, No. 1, p. 15. 



64 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

make anything approaching an accurate survey of the field, 
and his recommendations, based on generalities, had not been 
accepted. 82 He had given up the child labor and attendance 
law as incapable of enforcement, saying: 

"We permit by sheer and unpardonable neglect an educa- 
tional compulsory law to go wholly unenforced, and we elevate 
to the position of law-makers some who are law-breakers of 
the very statute, now become a statute of words only, with its 
provisions neglected and its penalties disregarded." 83 

Mr. Wright brought to the office not greater learning, 
but efficient training for statistical and administrative work. 
In a hasty preliminary study of the field he found that at least 
25,000 children between the ages of five and fifteen were not 
receiving the slightest training in schools, either public or 
private. 84 He was able to convince Governor Washburn of the 
seriousness of the situation and he in turn urged legislative 
relief. 85 A result was the laws of 1874, already noted, and the 
beginning of a new era in law enforcement. 

Apparently those employing children made a determined 
stand against further changes in the labor laws, 86 yet advance- 
ment, both in legislation and in methods of enforcement was 
now relatively rapid. In 1876 mercantile establishments were 
included with the manufacturing and mechanical industries; 
children under fourteen were required to attend school an- 
nually for a period of twenty, instead of twelve weeks before 
being admitted to them; the words knowingly and willfully 
were omitted from the statute, thus relieving the prosecution 
of the necessity of proving the intent of the accused employer ; 
and truant officers were authorized to visit, at least once each 
term, establishments where children were employed, and to 
report infractions of the law to the school committee. 87 

Meantime, the state was assuming larger responsibilities in 
the supervision and control of the criminal code. From 1867 
to 1871 a deputy state constable had been detailed to assist 



82. Bpt. Bu. Stat, of Lab., 1872, p. 467. 

83. Bpt. Bu. of Lab. Stat., 1873, p. 387. 

84. Bpt. Bu. Stat, of Lab., 1874, p. 6. 

85. Message, in Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1874, p. 509. 

86. Mass. Sch. Bpt., 1874, p. 141. 

87. Acts and Besolves, 1876, ch. 52. 



MASSACHUSETTS 65 

in enforcing the child labor laws. In 1871 a State Police 
Commission was created, 88 and each member of the state con- 
stabulary was directed to give due attention to these measures. 89 
Later, the enforcement of the employment and schooling pro- 
visions was again entrusted to a special deputy, Mr. George E. 
McNeill, who was able to attract particular attention to the 
educational needs of working children. 90 In 1877 it was pro- 
vided that members of the state detective department should 
act as inspectors of factories and prosecute for violations of 
measures relating to the employment of women and children. 
The next year it was made the duty of the Governor to appoint 
two regular factory inspectors from the police department. 91 
This small force was not able to cover the entire state with 
any degree of thoroughness, yet their work was done so effect- 
ively that certain town and city officials, accustomed to per- 
mit young children, working in violation of the law, to support 
their needy families, begged that requirements be relaxed. 92 

There was a distinct advance in child labor requirements in 
1878. Supported by a state bureau more adequately organized 
to secure and publish statistics showing the true status of child 
workers, by laws beginning to inspire respect because of more 
definite and more positive provisions, and by a method of en- 
forcement capable for the first time of compelling obedience, 
the law was now becoming something more than the registra- 
tion of a philanthropic wish for better opportunities for factory 
children. The legislation of this year provided: 93 

1. That manufacturing, mechanical, and mercantile es- 
tablishments should keep on file age certificates of all employees 
under sixteen, including schooling certificates for all under 
fourteen; such certificates to be issued under the direction of 
local school committees. 

2. Truant officers were given authority to require the pro- 
duction of all certificates. 

88. Ibid., 1871, ch. 394. 

89. Sen. Doc, 1875, No. 50, p. 3. 

90. He estimated that in 1874 there were 60,000 children in the state be- 
tween the ages of five and fifteen who were not yet reached by the school 
law. Sen. Doc, 1875, No. 50, p. 11. 

91. Acts and Besolves, 1879, ch. 305. 

92. Bpt. Chief of Detective Force, 1878, p. 29. 

93. Acts and Besolves, 1878, ch. 257. 



66 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

3. Failure on the part of the employer to require such a 
certificate was to be held a violation of the law. 

4. After May 1, 1880, no child under fourteen, not able to 
read and write, could be employed in the restricted occupations 
during the session of the public schools. 

5. During the vacations of the public schools children be- 
tween ten and fourteen might be employed, even though they 
had not met the schooling requirements. 

6. As provided in 1866, parents were held equally liable 
with employers, for the violation of the schooling requirements. 

The outstanding feature of this law is the age and schooling 
requirement, weak and inadequate, to be sure, yet capable of 
development. The further advances during the decade 1880- 
1890, in this essential feature of an acceptable child labor law 
may be noted here. In 1880 an important step toward uniform- 
ity was taken when it was required that the Secretary of the 
State Board of Education should furnish a form for the age 
and schooling certificate to be used throughout the state. 94 

In 1888 a radical advance was made, excluding from the 
three types or establishments all children under thirteen. 95 No 
child under sixteen could be employed therein unless the proper 
certificate was on file, and no certificate could be issued to a' 
child under fourteen unless there was presented to the issuing 
officer an employment ticket, signed by the prospective em- 
ployer, definitely promising employment as stated. The state- 
ment of age made in a prescribed form was, as before, to be 
signed by parent or guardian and duly sworn to, but if such 
adult did not reside in the town in which employment was 
sought the child's own signature and affidavit were accepted. 
The certificate of schooling could be signed only by the super- 
intendent of schools or some one authorized by him, or, in 
towns having no superintendent, by a member of the school 
committee duly authorized by vote. It was found that these 
certificates, once issued, were retained by employers when 
children left their service and used in engaging others having 
no working papers; 96 the law was therefore amended in 1890, 
making the certificate the property of the child and requiring 



94. Acts and Eesolves, 1880, ch. 137. 

95. Ibid., 1888, ch. 348. 

96. Whittelsey, op. cit., p. 19. 



MASSACHUSETTS 67 

the employer, subject to a fine of ten dollars for failure, to re- 
turn it to him on termination of employment. 97 

This employment certificate left much to be desired. No 
proof of age was required, the way being left open for gross 
dishonesty and deception, yet it was a definite advance over 
anything devised previous to that time, and compared with 
the shadowy beginning in 1838, 98 it becomes a striking ex- 
ample of progress. It marks a closer cooperation of education- 
al and industrial interests; it put the employer on the de- 
fensive, in that failure to produce it on demand was prima- 
facie evidence of violation of the law. , It is not possible to 
determine the exact effect these more adequate restrictions 
upon child labor were exercising upon school attendance and 
the number of children in industry, as statistics on attendance 
were still unreliable, 99 but fewer children were at work, the 
number under fifteen employed in the restricted industries 
falling off during the decade more than one-half. 100 Employers 
found the school certificate and later the employment tickets 
so much annoyance that they were inclined to discontinue, so 
far as possible, the employment of children subject to them. 101 

Very striking, too, is the progress of this decade in school 
attendance requirements and in the restriction of employment 
during school time. In 1883 it was provided that no child 
under twelve years of age might be employed in manufactur- 
ing, mechanical, or mercantile establishments during the hours 
the public schools were in session. 102 The question of hours 
occasioned some confusion, and the law was amended two years 
later, substituting the word days for the word hours. 103 In 
1887, in order to combat the illiteracy of foreign-born youth 
and of those who had not met the schooling requirements in 
the period of non-enforcement, a law was passed excluding 
from employment, except during the vacation periods of the 



97. Acts and Resolves, 1890, ch. 299. 

98. Supra, p. 39. . , 

99. Mass. Sch. Rpt., 1880, p. exxiii. 

100. Whittelsey, op. cit., p. 67. 

101. Ibid. 

102. Acts and Resolves, 1883, ch. 224. This bill became law without the 
signature of the governor. 

103. Acts and Resolves, 1885, ch. 222. 



68 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

public schools, all minors less than fourteen years of age not 
able to read and write, under penalty upon both parent and 
employer of not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars. 
Nor could a minor over fourteen, who was unable to read and 
write, and who had resided continuously for one year in a 
town or city maintaining an evening school, be legally em- 
ployed unless he was a regular attendant upon some day or 
evening school. It was provided, however, that if "such illiter- 
ate's earnings were necessary for his own or his family's sup- 
port, the school committee might issue a permit authorizing 
employment. 104 The liberty allowed school committees in this 
matter was not always used wisely, and in 1890 it became 
necessary to guard the issuance of the special exemption per- 
mits so that only in an unusual case could an illiterate minor 
escape the requirements of evening school attendance. 105 

The law of 1888, which provided for a more adequate age 
and schooling certificate, forbade the employment at any time 
in factory, mechanical, or mercantile establishments of all 
children less than thirteen years of age, nor could such children 
be employed for wages in any indoor work during the hours 
the public schools were in session, nor in any manner during 
such hours unless during the preceding year they had attended 
school for at least twenty weeks. This act forbade the em- 
ployment of children under fourteen earlier than six o'clock 
in the morning and later than seven in the evening ; dangerous 
employments, as listed by the chief of state police, were also 
forbidden. 106 Two years later minors over fourteen and women 
were forbidden employment between the hours of ten in the 
evening and six in the morning. 107 

In the closing years of this decade other laws were enacted 
which show how earnestly Massachusetts was seeking to insure 
to every child the advantages of the best the schools could 
offer. In the first compulsory attendance act of 1852 poverty 
of parent or guardian was specified as a reasonable excuse for 
denying the child the privileges of learning. Since that time, 

104. Ibid., 1887, ch. 433. 

105. Ibid., 1890, ch. 48. 

106. Acts and Ecsolves, 1888, ch. 348. 

107. Ibid., 1890, ch. 183. 



MASSACHUSETTS 69 

in the revisions of the law, this cause for exemption had stood. 
Labor laws had sought to insure to every child at work in mills 
and factories, and later in stores, at least a few weeks annually 
in school, but in the general attendance law the poverty clause 
remained a barrier to complete enforcement. In 1889 this 
cause for exemption, retained by short-sighted thrift, was 
allowed to disappear. 108 The next year the annual term of 
compulsory attendance was extended to thirty weeks for all 
between eight and fourteen years of age, provided schools were 
in session so long. 109 

It is well enough to recognize that educational and industrial 
conditions were not ideal. More than fifty years had passed 
since Horace Mann, in his report had so mercilessly held up 
before the public view the many delinquencies of Massachusetts 
in the administration of her school laws. Wonderful things 
had taken place in that time, and an excellent system of schools 
was in operation. The child labor laws, under the oversight 
of the state police, were enforced much better than formerly, 
but local school committees and truant officers were as re- 
luctant as ever to bring force to bear upon their neighbors, 110 
and the Secretary of the State Board of Education was calling 
insistently for a state official who could rise above local in- 
fluences and fearlessly enforce the law, now fairly workable. 111 
The truancy law was quite generally neglected, or obeyed only 
in form. Many towns had met the letter of the law by desig- 
nating the county almshouses as the truant school. Judges, 
however, often refused to commit truants to such unsuitable 
places, and so the law remained largely inoperative. 112 Schools 
were actually maintained in some of the almshouses, however. 
For example, in Cambridge was a school of sixty-one, ten being 
girls. At Lowell, in the same county, a school of about the 
same size was grouped with the other city institutions, the jail, 
workhouse, and insane asylum. The secretary remarks, "The 
authorities in charge do not consider it a fit place for the train- 



108. Ibid., 1889, ch. 464. 

109. Ibid., 1890, ch. 384. 

110. Mass. Sch. Ept., 1887, p. 165; 1889, pp. 235, 297. 

111. Ibid., 1886, p. 184; 1890, p. 97. 

112. Ibid., 1886, pp. 170-175. 



70 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

ing of wayward children into self-respecting and high-minded 
citizens." 113 

The closing decade of this century, so full of significance in 
its changing attitude toward children, was marked by an 
official study of school attendance and by the enactment of 
carefully considered laws intended to correct the weaknesses 
discovered. It was generally recognized that the attendance 
laws were not well enforced; just how serious the situation 
was had never been determined. In 1895 the legislature direct- 
ed the State Board of Education to investigate the subject and 
report. 114 With the small force available it did not seem pos- 
sible to canvass the entire state, so fifty typical towns were 
selected and fairly thorough examinations made, upon which 
estimates for the state might be based. It was found that 
parents still regarded the schooling of their children as strictly 
their own private concern. The law was violated with im- 
punity. 115 The Secretary of the State Board estimated that 
had fines been collected according to law in the fifty towns 
studied, the total sum for a single year would have been 
$2,822,560. The truancy law was also quite generally ignored. 
The constant neglect of this law was justified by the secretary 
on the grounds that the truant schools were so manifestly un- 
fit for their purposes. Here, he said: 

''The truants' associates were imbeciles, pauper children, 
the insane and criminal classes. The schools were places for 
restraint rather than for wise direction. The playgrounds were 
small enclosures surrounded by high, tight, board fences ; the 
buildings were furnished with cells for confinement. The dis- 
cipline was symbolized by these things." 116 

The child labor laws were apparently enforced almost to the 
letter with the exception that children evidently not more than 
twelve or thirteen years of age had, through the easy methods 
of deception invited by the law, secured the necessary papers 
and were at work. 117 

The results of the investigation are somewhat disappointing, 

113. Ibid., 1891, p. 297. 

114. Acts and Resolves, 1895, ch. 47. 

115. Mass. Sch. Bpt., No. 59, pp. 530, 537, 542. 

116. Ibid., p. 546. 

117. Ibid., p. 545. 



MASSACHUSETTS 71 

as no statistics of value are presented. The report closes with 
the following recommendations, which later became the basis 
of amendments or new legislation: 

An exact and adequate school census; a more complete 
system of school registers; a uniform method of transferring 
pupils so as to enable truant officers to follow attendance ; more 
adequate age and schooling certificate; a method of dealing 
with those who plead poverty as an excuse for non-attendance ; 
an increase in the length of the school year and the time of 
required attendance; further restrictions upon employment 
during school, hours; extension of duties and powers of truant 
officers to private schools ; one or more state attendance officers ; 
change name of truant schools to parental schools; provide 
parental schools for girls; an indeterminate sentence in com- 
mitment to parental schools. 118 

The legislature received the report of the board with favor 
and directed that a plan be presented for carrying its recom- 
mendations into execution. 119 Three bills were therefore draft- 
ed relating respectively to attendance and truancy, to employ- 
ment, and to neglected children. At the next legislative session 
a crowded calendar made it impossible to reach these bills, but 
an appropriation was made for a further study of the sub- 
ject. 120 The board revised its bills carefully, secured all avail- 
able criticism and advice, and appeared before the legislature 
at the following session with what the Secretary regarded as 
one of the best considered legislative programs ever presented 
to that body. 121 

With a few exceptions the provisions of the three bills were 
enacted into law at this session. The more important changes 
made in the regulations heretofore in force are listed below : 
Attendance and truancy. 122 

1. The minimum length of the school year was increased 
from six to eight months. 

2. The period of compulsory attendance, formerly thirty 
weeks, annually, between the years eight to fourteen, became 
regular attendance for the full school session within the years 
seven to fourteen. 



118. Ibid., p. 549. 

119. Acts and Resolves, 1896, ch. 96. 

120. Ibid., 1897, ch. 84. 

121. Mass. Sch. Bpt., No. 61, p. 17. .. 

122. Acts and Besolves, 1898, ch. 496. 



72 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

3. The truant officer, who before could proceed against the 
parent only when directed by the school committee to do so, 
was now authorized to take action if the child was absent for 
five day sessions or ten half-day sessions in any period of six 
months. 

4. It was provided that upon complaint a summons instead 
of a warrant should issue, though a warrant might issue at 
any later time. 

5. The truancy laws were simplified and improved and the 
county truant schools were made subject to visitation by both 
the State Board of Education and the State Board of Charities. 
Employment. 123 

1. The minimum age at which any child might be employed 
in a factory, Avorkshop, or mercantile establishment was raised 
from thirteen to fourteen. 

2. All under sixteen were now required to present an em- 
ployment ticket before Avorking papers could be issued. Here- 
tofore this had been required only of those under fourteen. 

3. No child under fourteen could now be employed in any 
occupation, for wages, during the hours the public schools were 
in session. 

4. The age and schooling certificates were more carefully 
protected, though the superintendent of schools was given 
much latitude in determining the sufficiency of the proofs of 
age. 

The legislation of 1898 closed the child labor program of the 
century with a record greatly to the credit of those who had 
brought the standards higher year by year. Not all that had 
been sought at the hands of the legislature had been granted. 
No truant school had been provided for girls, though strongly 
recommended in the original program; nor had state super- 
vision or state enforcement of attendance laws been inaugurat- 
ed, though the local administration was admittedly farcical. 
There remained, also, most important of all, the problem of 
adjusting the work of the schools to the needs of those re- 
quired to attend them, a problem to which relatively little con- 
sideration had thus far been given. The partial solution of 
this problem is the contribution of the second decade of the 
twentieth century. 

There was no new legislation of importance in the first five 



123. Acts and Besolves, 1898, ch. 494. In 1890, the maximum working week 
for minors under eighteen and all women had been reduced from sixty 
hours to fifty-eight. 



MASSACHUSETTS 73 

years of the new century. This was a period of consolidation 
of gains already made. In 1905 a commission was appointed to 
investigate the subject of industrial and technical education. 124 
The results of this investigation, expressed in the present sys- 
tem of industrial education in the state, will be noted later. 
During this period the education of illiterate minors over four- 
teen was receiving attention, and the earlier regulations were 
strengthened and extended ; 125 more adequate proof of age was 
required, also, of all applicants for working papers. 126 In 
addition to the legislative order providing for the commission 
to investigate industrial education, two measures were passed 
which indicate the scientific attitude then coming to prevail 
in education. The first was an act making mandatory upon 
school committees the appointment of school physicians and 
requiring the careful medical examination of each child at 
least once a year. 127 The second act was aimed at the oldest 
and most unshaken of all the classic causes for exemption from 
the requirements and penalties of the compulsory attendance 
laws, not only in Massachusetts but throughout the country, 
namely, the physical and mental disability clause. It was pro- 
vided that no physical or mental condition capable of cor- 
rection, or which rendered the child a fit subject for special 
instruction should be accepted as defense against the compul- 
sory provisions. 128 In the former of these two statutes is 
evidenced the obligation of the state, already pledged to keep 
its children in school and free from overwhelming economic 
burdens, to guard them from disease and to insure them, so 
far as possible, normal physical development. The latter pro- 
vision, while affecting relatively few children, shows the de- 
termination of society to adjust its scheme of education to 
every child capable of profiting in any degree by instruction 
or treatment. 

In addition to these important constructive statutes enacted 
in 1906, two other measures command attention as marking 

124. Appointed June 7, 1905. 

125. Acts and Besolves, 1902, ch. 183; 1905, ch. 320; 1905, ch. 267. 

126. Ibid., 1904, ch. 432 ; 1905, ch. 213. 

127. Ibid., 1906, ch. 502. The first compulsory medical inspection in the 
United States. 

128. Ibid., 1906, ch. 383. 



74 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

progress in the development of definite standards and firmer 
administration. The first defined the expression, "ability to 
read at sight and to write simple sentences in the English 
language," the standard of literacy required for working 
papers, as such proficiency as would enable the child to classify 
in the public schools of his town or city in the second grade 
in 1907, in the third grade in 1908, and thereafter in the fourth 
grade. 129 The second measure modified the child labor law, 
extending the authority of factory inspectors to mercantile 
establishments, giving greater power to truant officers, and 
making possible a fine of three hundred dollars, with a jail 
sentence in addition, for violation of the law. Inspectors and 
truant officers willfully and knowingly neglecting their duties 
were made liable to a fine of not more than one hundred 
dollars. 130 

Another movement which began to take more definite form 
about this time and which has profoundly influenced the later 
compulsory legislation in this state and elsewhere, is that which 
expresses itself in various forms of industrial education. The 
industrial education of the twentieth century is but a part of 
a great social movement arising from the new philosophy of 
education which demands that every child be given oppor- 
tunity to develop such abilities as he may potentially possess, 
to attain as nearly as possible his maximum capacity as a con- 
tributor in an economic and broadly social sense, not as an 
individualistic exploiter of the goods of life, but as a social 
unit whose welfare cannot be considered apart from that of 
society, and in whose limitations society must also suffer. 

It is not necessary to review the extent to which mere ability 
to read and write has been emphasized in the development of 
compulsory education. Based originally upon a religious 
necessity, such elementary knowledge became the standard of 
minimum attainment in every state and country. But a modern 
system of teaching may put the child in command of the art 
of reading in a few months. To-day, in the six or eight years 
of school attendance which are required, much more than the 
former standards must be attained. Literacy, still ostensibly 



129. Acts and Resolves, 1906, ch. 284. 

130. Acts and Resolves, 1906, ch. 499. 



MASSACHUSETTS 75 

conveying the idea of ability to write and spell, is coming to 
mean far more than that. Economically this may be expressed 
as industrial efficiency. No doubt the earlier demands for a 
richer course of study were based largely on economic con- 
siderations. The legislature in 1870 added drawing to the sub- 
jects required to be taught in the schools throughout the state, 
and in towns and cities of over 10,000 population made free 
instruction in both industrial and mechanical drawing com- 
pulsory. 131 A special state agent was brought from England 132 
to direct and supervise the work in the schools and to instruct 
teachers. 133 This action was stimulated by a petition, signed 
by manufacturers and other business men, presented to the 
legislature in 1869. These men were thinking of the specific 
industrial needs of the state, and were not petitioning in be- 
half of the children; development of skill in the interests of 
commercial leadership was the aim. 134 In 1882 a committee 
appointed by the state board to look into the subject of in- 
dustrial education, reported in favor of manual training, not 
for its specific trade value, but as a part of a general pre- 
liminary education. 135 In 1884, instruction in manual work 
was authorized by law, in 1895 it was required in high schools 
in cities of over 20,000, and three years later in both elementary 
and high schools in such cities. By 1906 manual arts of some 
sort was a part of the elementary course of study, not only in 
the cities required by law to maintain it, but in fifty-nine 
smaller towns as well. 136 

There was at this time considerable dissatisfaction with the 
results of the industrial work already attempted. The law re- 
quiring manual training in both high and elementary schools 
in the larger towns and cities, while complied with in many 
places, carried no provision for enforcement, and in certain 
cities its terms were entirely ignored or only partially met. 137 



131. Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1870, ch. 248. 

132. Mass. Sch. Bpt., No. 35, p. 109. Mr. Walter Smith, head master of the 
School of Arts, Leeds, was the first state agent of drawing. 

133. Mass. Sch. Bpt., No. 34, p. 163 ff. 

134. Ibid., No. 34, p. 143. 

135. Ibid., No. 46, p. 156. 

136. Ibid., No. 71, p. 189. 

137. Beport of Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, p. 14. 



76 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

There was a feeling that relatively few children destined to 
become industrial workers were gaining what the advocates 
of the law had intended for them; that the prevailing educa- 
tion of the schools was not such as might best insure to the 
state her industrial leadership. 

Again the demand for a new order in education came from 
the business interests rather than from those in charge of the 
schools. The legislature in 1905 directed the governor to ap- 
point a commission to inquire into the subject of industrial 
and technical education. 138 Governor William L. Douglas, him- 
self a manufacturer, appointed the commission which, under 
the direction of its chairman, Carrol D. Wright, made an ex- 
tensive study of industry in the state, and of the industrial 
aspects of education. A sub-committee was appointed to have 
special charge of an investigation into the condition and needs 
of children between fourteen and sixteen. 139 

The investigation of the sub-committee covered forty-three 
cities and towns representing every section of the state. No 
fewer than 5,459 children were followed into 3,157 different 
homes and into 354 establishments representing 55 industries. 
It was found that about 25,000 children between fourteen and 
sixteen were either at work or were out of school and idle. 
Of these, five-sixths had not had schooling equivalent to that 
of the grammar grades, hence could not have profited by such 
industrial training as the schools were supposed to offer. One- 
third of these children left school to enter upon unskilled in- 
dustries; nearly all the rest were engaged in work requiring 
only low grade skill, work consisting of constant repetition of 
some simple, single process easily and quickly learned. Only 
two per cent had entered high grade industries. 140 

The commission held twenty public hearings throughout the 
state in as many. industrial centers, meeting hundreds of manu- 
facturers and their employees. It appeared that everywhere 
there was a lack of skilled workmen and of "industrial in- 



138. Mass. Acts and Resolves, 1905, ch. 94. 

139. Though Massachusetts long delayed a state-wide program of compul- 
sory education for children between fourteen and sixteen who are engaged 
in her industries, the work inaugurated by this commission has been so far- 
reaching in its influence as to warrant brief consideration in this study. 

140. Report of the Commission, pp. 25-28. 



MASSACHUSETTS 77 

telligence." After a careful consideration of the entire in- 
dustrial-educational situation the commission concluded that 
a radical modification in the school system was required. It 
was proposed that both instruction and practice in the elements 
of productive industry should have a place in elementary 
schools; that in the high schools, mathematics, the sciences, 
and drawing should be presented with particular reference to 
local industrial life. It was further proposed that in existing 
schools much larger place be given to both instruction and 
practice in the elements of productive industry, and that, in 
addition, there should be created a separate system of in- 
dustrial education, with part-time or continuation schools for 
children already employed. 141 

Though the commission did not definitely recommend com- 
pulsory attendance upon the proposed industrial schools, em- 
ployers, though apparently favorable to some form of in- 
dustrial education, began to insist at once that if working 
children be required to attend, it be upon evening sessions 
only. 142 At the same time labor organizations were inclined to 
look with suspicion upon the program. They feared that the 
proposed schools, frequently referred to as "scab hatcheries," 
would turn out workmen in such numbers as to affect the labor 
market. 143 

However, on recommendation of the commission, the legis- 
lature made provision for a permanent board or commission 
on industrial education which, cooperating with local author- 
ities, undertook to establish industrial state aided schools in 
the more important manufacturing centers. 144 

The separate industrial school system was maintained for 
only three years. In 1909 the State Board of Education was 
reorganized, taking its present form. To it were assigned the 
powers and duties of the Industrial Commission. The ex- 
ecutive officer, instead of secretary of the board, became com- 
missioner of education, and it was provided that one of his 

141. Bpt. Com. on Indust. and Tech. Ed., pp. 18-22. 

142. Second Bpt., Com. on Indust. Ed., p. 626. 

143. Report of the first commission, pp. 6, 7. 

144. Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1906, ch. 505. This dual form of organization 
was adopted by Wisconsin in 1911. 



78 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

two deputies should be especially qualified to deal with in- 
dustrial education. 145 

In many of the cities part-time classes were established by 
local boards, mostly in the evening, but attendance remained 
entirely voluntary. - The evening schools perhaps served the 
purpose intended. They offered further educational oppor- 
tunity to ambitious boys and girls who, obliged to work dur- 
ing the day, were willing to devote their evenings to self- 
improvement. They could do nothing for the great masses 
of young workers who lacked motive or physical strength to 
undertake the double burden. Wisconsin had established con- 
tinuation schools and was requiring the attendance of children 
working under employment certificates, 148 but in Massachu- 
setts action so radical in character was not to be expected. 
The situation, clearly demanding compulsion in the higher 
interests of her working children, was met with the conserva- 
tism and the regard for community rights which have ever 
distinguished the commonwealth. In 1913 the legislature 
authorized towns and cities maintaining continuation schools 
to require the attendance of all between fourteen and sixteen, 
to whom working papers had been issued and who were 
regularly employed. Attendance was to be for not less than 
four hours a week, and on a working day between eight in 
the morning and six in the afternoon. It was required that 
the time spent in school be included as a part of the forty- 
eight hours, during which the child might legally be em- 
ployed. 147 To encourage the establishment of such schools the 
state undertook to pay to the community a sum equal to one- 
half the cost of maintenance. 

Boston was the only city to invoke the compulsory pro- 
visions of this law. Several attempts were made to require 
attendance under general statute, but hostile influences success- 
fully resisted the movement until the legislative session of 
1919, when continuation schools were made compulsory 
throughout the state and attendance required of all children 
between fourteen and sixteen employed on certificate. 

145. Ibid., 1909, ch. 457. Mass. Sch. Ept., No. 74, p. 84. 

146. Investigating committee appointed, 1909; schools established, 1911. 

147. Acts and Besolves, 1913, ch. 805. 



MASSACHUSETTS 79 

As in New York, Pennsylvania, and other states, so in 
Massachusetts there has been in recent years a distinct move- 
ment toward centralization of the powers of government. In 
1912 the diverse authorities to which had been assigned the 
duty of administering the labor laws were consolidated in a 
new body, a State Board of Labor and Industries. 148 Five 
persons constitute this board, of whom one must be an em- 
ployer of labor, one a wage-earner, one a physician or a sani- 
tary engineer, and at least one a woman. 

The following year the school attendance law was strength- 
ened in certain details, 149 and the provisions for employment 
certificates so revised as to require a new certificate in case 
a child under sixteen sought a new place of employment. 150 
It was required that, on termination of employment, the cer- 
tificate be returned within two days to the office of the school 
superintendent issuing it. 

As amended, the child labor laws were more readily en- 
forceable, and the new board of labor and industry, while dis- 
posed to favor employers so far as possible, announced its 
intention of eliminating the illegal labor of children. Em- 
ployers were assured, however, that there would be no prosecu- 
tions until all had been fully informed as to changes in 
requirements. 151 

Lack of harmony in the board led to an almost complete 
change in its personnel within the second year of its existence. 
Its first report was signed by four of its five members, the dis- 
senting member, Mr. Channing Smith, the representative of 
the manufacturers, submitting a minority report which throws 
considerable light upon the industrial situation. Its language 
is that of the benevolent manufacturer of the middle of the 
nineteenth century who, while growing rich from the labor of 



148. Ibid., 1912, ch. 726. The board took over the powers and duties with 
reference to the enforcement of laws relating to labor formerly exercised by 
the district police, the state board of health, and the inspectors of factories 
and public buildings. 

149. Acts of 1913, eh. 779. 

150. Ibid., ch. 779. The employment certificate of 1913, carefully guarded 
at nearly every essential point, should be compared with the first certificate 
of 1838, designed to favor the employer, and to protect him in case of 
prosecution. Supra, p. 39. 

151. First An. Bpt., State Board of Labor and Industry, p. 9. 



80 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

children, saw in constant employment not accompanied by too 
much schooling the highest interests of the toilers. The new 
law, Mr. Smith maintained, had thrown 17,000 children out of 
employment in the four months of its operation. Few had re- 
turned to school and in the idleness of the others there was 
personal and social danger. "My sympathies/' he said, "go 
to the rank and file of labor, to whom no one seems to lend a 
helping hand against the misguided efforts of paid agitators, 
social workers and professional politicians." 

He was deeply stirred by the contemplation of the sufferings 
of fathers and mothers of large families, whose income was 
now seriously reduced, and he demanded for such parents the 
continued benefits of the earnings of their children. He re- 
ferred to the good old days when boys and girls were brought 
up in honest industry, adding, "and those were the days when 
men and women were produced." Mr. Smith objected to con- 
tinuing the child in school after he had attained a fair knowl- 
edge of the common branches, saying : 

"Massachusetts is duty bound to give each of its children 
a good common school education, and by this I mean more of 
the old-fashioned grounding in reading, writing, and arith- 
metic, and more benefit will be gained for the child by doing 
this than by raising the school age to sixteen years, and putting 
in all the frills and fancies which go with the modern school 
education. 

"If Massachusetts is to continue to be a leader industrially 
we must call a halt on the theorist and faddist, — people who 
have been eagerly working overtime in building up an industry 
of their own, — an industry of busy bodies who countenance 
attacks upon and seem delighted at the handicapping of the 
legitimate industries of the state and nation." 152 

The Board, practically re-constituted in 1915, carried out 
the policies announced in the first annual report. Employers 
were instructed in the new requirements and inspectors con- 
tinued to seek their friendly cooperation. Many orders as to 
the employment of children were issued, but prosecutions were 
rare. 153 



152. The Beport, pp. 23-27. 

153. Third An. Bpt. Bu. Indust. and Lab., p. 9. Of 7,096 orders issued 
during this year, 6,500 bore directly upon the conditions under which women 
and children were employed. There were three prosecutions for the em- 
ployment of children under fourteen. 



MASSACHUSETTS 81 

Between 1913 and 1916 several minor changes were made in 
the child labor and schooling laws. There appears a tendency 
to adjust the requirements to meet the demands of special 
groups of persons upon whom the legislation of 1913 worked 
real or fancied hardship. For example, it was provided that 
the local superintendent might issue papers to a child who, 
though of legal working age, had not attained to the standard 
of scholarship required by law, if in the judgment of the 
issuing officers the child was not capable of acquiring the pre- 
scribed learning. 154 A year later the law was amended, giving 
the local school superintendent power to excuse double the 
number of absences formerly permitted in any period of six 
months. 155 

But the most conspicuous example of relaxation in the stand- 
ards of 1913 is a measure passed in 1916 authorizing the is- 
suance of working papers good for the summer vacation only, 
to children between fourteen and sixteen not able to meet the 
scholastic requirement. 156 Expert students of the problems of 
child labor are almost unanimous in the condemnation of 
vacation working permits. The enactment of this law was re- 
garded as a distinct step backward. Its author claimed as its 
chief advantage the relief afforded to children of foreign birth 
who had not been able to reach the fourth grade in the public 
schools and who, though of legal age, were forced to remain 
idle during the summer. 157 

But two of the more recent changes in the Massachusetts 
laws relating to education have direct bearing upon this study. 
In the year 1909 the child between fourteen and sixteen apply- 
ing for working papers was required to present a school record 
showing that he was eligible for classification in the fourth 
grade of the public schools. In 1919 the law was amended, 
providing that the applicant must be able to classify in the 



154. Acts and Besolves, 1914, ch. 580. 

155. Ibid., 1915, ch. 8. Absences amounting to seven days were now per- 
mitted. 

156. Acts and Besolves, 1916, ch. 66. This bill was drafted by W. H. 
Perry, superintendent of the Leominster public schools; its passage was 
resisted by the social workers of the state, but urged by many manufac- 
turers. 

157. Leominster Enterprise, May 17, 1916. 



82 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

sixth grade. 158 The second change especially significant at 
this time, was the extension of the part-time or continuation 
school law to the entire state, making the establishment of such 
schools obligatory in all towns and cities in which as many 
as two hundred minors under sixteen are legally employed. 159 

The law provides that any such minor, whether employed 
at home or elsewhere, shall attend continuation school, if one 
be established in the community of employment, for at least 
four hours each week, this time being included as a part of 
the number of hours he is permitted, under the law, to work. 
If temporarily out of employment, the youth is required to be 
in school full time. 

The state offers financial aid to the extent of half the total 
sum raised by local taxation and expended for the maintenance 
of continuation schools or classes, provided the work and the 
equipment are approved by the State Board of Education. If 
a community required under the law to establish such a school 
should fail to do so, it may be compelled to forfeit a sum equal 
to tAvice that estimated by the State Board of Education as 
necessary properly to establish and maintain such a school. 
Three-fifths of this forfeiture shall then be turned over to the 
local school committee to be used by it for the maintenance 
of a continuation school precisely as though the sum had been 
appropriated by the city or town for that purpose. 160 

The law required that continuation schools should be put in 
operation at the beginning of the school year, 1920-1921. Forty- 
four such schools have been organized up to March, 1921, with 
an attendance of 24,827, slightly more than half being boys. 
The courses given are both academic and industrial, the latter 
being most largely in evidence. In the main, attendance is 
good, though the director of vocational education reports 
certain difficulties not yet adjusted. 161 



158. Acts and Resolves, 1919, ch. 281. 

159. Acts and Besolves, 1919, ch. 311. 

160. The continuation school may be established by the school committee 
or by the local board of trustees for vocational education or by both. 
Advantage may be taken of established educational agencies, and any suit- 
able quarters approved by the state board of education may be used, but 
when established the school is regarded as a part of the public school 
system of the municipality. 

161. Data by Mr. Eobert O. Small, Director of Vocational Education. 



MASSACHUSETTS 



83 



Massachusetts has adhered rigidly to her historic method of 
local responsibility in enforcing general school attendance. 
Nowhere else have the weaknesses of strictly local methods 
been more clearly pointed out, but while the state has accepted 
almost complete responsibility for the enforcement of child 
labor laws, it has not been favorable to taking over any share 
in the task of securing attendance upon the schools. While 
she still ranks high in the proportion of her school population 
in attendance upon means of education, her advance over a 
series of years has not been notable, all the other states in- 
cluded in this study having made greater progress in this 
respect. 162 Since the state must depend entirely upon reports 
from the many local authorities as to school attendance and 
the degree in which attendance laws are enforced, the statistics 
in this field are far from satisfactory. From a study of the 
materials available it is evident that, in general, the com- 
pulsory attendance requirements have been laxly adminis- 
tered. 163 As something of a check, data bearing upon attend- 
ance were secured through the cooperation of the superin- 
tendents of schools in three fairly representative cities of the 
state with population varying from fifteen thousand to one 
hundred fifty thousand. 164 The following table exhibits the 
conditions prevailing in these communities. 

TABLE I 

Showing attendance in three Massachusetts districts 

First six months, 1920-1921 





9 

O > 






<H 

o 








03 

0) 

s 


n 

s 


^ 5? « 

o 2. 
e u 


8 
a 


a 
a 

c '" u 


!§ 


fe 4)-"* 



M 

*- C 

i]3s 


.2 .So 


■si 
Is 




is-? 


#3§ 


135 


S & S 

son 


JH 


Is. 


Fall River 


17247 | 7 


Complete 


92 


4500 


2378 


2500 





Framingham 


2200 1 1 


j j 


91.7 


516 


204 








Worcester 


19934 J 5 


t y 


89 


2247 


2247 


1700 


30 



aw 

162. See diagram, p.-OOr 

163. #»pra, pp. 69, 70, 76. 

164. The writer is indebted to Mr. Ernest W. Fellows, Mr. H. L. Belisle, 
and Mr. Harvey S. Gruver, superintendents at Framingham, Fall Kiver, and 
Worcester, respectively, for their assistance in this instance. 



84 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

It would appear that in these three districts a satisfactory 
degree of attendance is secured, with every child accounted for. 
In Fall River the number reported in continuation school is 
greater than the total number of working papers issued, but 
it is to be remembered that the child must attend school not 
in the district in which he resides and where he secures his 
working papers but in the district in which he is employed. 
It is significant that in the district in which is found the low- 
est percentage of attendance there have been several prosecu- 
tions during the year, while in Fall River, a city formerly 
known as a sad offender in regard to both child labor and 
attendance laws, the rate of attendance is highest and no parent 
has been proceeded against for violation of the schooling 
requirements. 165 

Under the authority of the State Board of Labor and In- 
dustry the child labor laws are administered with a fair degree 
of efficiency. Thirty-three inspectors are constantly busy in 
the discharge of their duties, one of which is to see that no 
children are illegally employed. 166 Yet there is evidence that 
far too many children succeed in entering employment con- 
trary to law and in holding their places in defiance of the 
vigilance of the inspectors and the attendance officers. 167 
Offending employers are no longer treated with the tender 
leniency formerly extended to them, yet penalties are not 
heavy and rigid compliance with the law is sometimes 
inconvenient. 168 



165. During the school year 1919-1920, one parent and two hundred sixty- 
six employers were prosecuted in this city for violation of the child labor 
laws. 

166. The statutes now provide for thirty-nine inspectors. 

167. A study of a thousand accidents to children between fourteen and 
sixteen employed in Massachusetts reveals that over two hundred, more 
than twenty per cent, were employed contrary to law, either without proper 
working papers or in some forbidden occupation. The American Child, 
November, 1920, pp. 222-229. 

168. In recent years, between 200 and 300 cases have been brought annually 
against employers who have violated some part of the child labor laws. 
There have been relatively few acquittals. In the year 1917, thirty-three 
per cent of all cases instituted by the inspectors were for the illegal em- 
ployment of children; in 1918, sixty-eight per cent, and in 1919, fifty-seven 
per cent of all cases were on account of children. See Fifth, Sixth, and 
Seventh Annual Eeports, State Board of Labor and Industries, pp. 20, 14, 
and 9, respectively. 



MASSACHUSETTS 85 

There is no organic connection between the labor inspectors 
and the school authorities, intimately as their duties are re- 
lated, except that all working papers are issued by the latter. 
To the layman it seems probable that with an adequate state- 
wide system of child accounting, and with reasonable co- 
operation between attendance officers and inspectors, every 
child might be followed up and his illegal employment 
prevented. 169 

In certain respects other states have passed beyond Massa- 
chusetts in the protection of children, yet almost every advance 
in the progressive development of child labor laws and com- 
pulsory measures for the education of the masses in America 
may be traced to this commonwealth, or to people whose ideals 
were shaped within her borders. In the Colonial period there 
was only a partial appreciation of the rights of childhood, yet 
even then there was a zeal for education not equalled else- 
where in the world. Under the heavy handicaps of the "dark 
days of New England," and those days of industrial darkness 
in the first half of the nineteenth century, progress has seemed 
slow. Sometimes there was apparent retrogression. In recent 
decades there has been constant warfare with totally unscru- 
pulous manufacturers and with parents quite willing to mort- 
gage the future of their children for their present meagre 
earnings. There has been the insidious menace of the kind- 
hearted, philanthropic, but misguided employer holding to the 
earlier theories regarding the moral value of child labor and 
firmly convinced that for the mill child no education beyond 
mastery of reading, writing and arithmetic is desirable. There 
have been enthusiastic but poorly balanced social workers 
who, by ill-considered measures, have antagonized elements 
whose cooperation in successful law enforcement is necessary. 



169. The inspectors find many children to whom proper working papers 
have been issued engaged in labor, not suited to their strength or state of 
health. Often the employer changes the assignment of work after the child 
enters upon the task originally approved. In other instances an inadequate 
medical examination has failed to reveal some disability or weakness which 
may later cause serious accident either to the child or a fellow worker. A 
study recently made of the medical examinations of applicants for working 
papers in the years 1917, 1918, and 1919 shows that in many cases not more 
than two minutes were given a child, sometimes only one minute or even 
less. Seventh Annual Eeport, State Board of Labor and Industries, pp. 
26-33. 



86 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Notwithstanding these and other obstructive elements a 
record has been made for which no apologies need be offered. 
The principles of American government, firmly grounded in 
English tradition, have been developed. Gradually the will of 
a people has expressed itself in a degree of state control, of 
compulsory procedure which, suddenly proposed, would have 
appeared intolerable. Always the method of progress has been 
the same; the practice of a more adequate and enlightened 
method by a few communities; a gradual extension of such 
method to the towns and cities of the state; permissive legis- 
lation; general legislation; usually without adequate means of 
enforcement; finally strict enforcement with exaction of pen- 
alty for non-compliance with the letter of the law. 



CHAPTER V 

CONNECTICUT 

Connecticut has in some respects passed beyond all other 
states in the effective enforcement of her compulsory attend- 
ance and child labor laws. Her large local initiative with the 
historic town as the unit of control is united with a state 
authority nowhere else so intimately in touch with the people. 
The child labor law of this state is by no means a model, nor 
does the law requiring a minimum of school attendance repre- 
sent the highest attainment in this form of legislation, yet in 
the method and efficiency of enforcement other states may well 
learn of Connecticut. Not the law, but its administration is 
the contribution of this state. 

Conditions of compulsory education and child labor in the 
Colonial and early National periods, already noted, were not 
essentially different from those prevailing in Massachusetts. 
It does not appear, however, that organized labor was an im- 
portant factor in support of legislation intended primarily to 
benefit the children of working men. 1 The law of 1813 2 had 
apparently affected the educational status of factory children 
very little. Henry Barnard found it a "dead letter" in 1840, 3 
and urged more adequate legislation in behalf of the youthful 
workers of the state who were growing up in ignorance. 4 After 
repeated recommendations by Mr. Barnard, Secretary of the 
Commissioners of Common Schools, in which the governor 
joined in milder vein, 5 a law was enacted in 1842, distinctly in 
advance of the measure of 1813, yet quite as incapable of en- 
forcement. Its chief provisions were: 



1. Woman and Child Wage-Earners in U. S., Senate Doc., No. 645, 1910, 
Vol. VI, p. 92. 

2. Supra, p. 34. 

3. Sec. An. Bpt. Com. of Schs. Ct., p. 24. 

4. Ibid. 

5. Woman and Child Wage-Earners, op. cit., p. 91. 

87 



88 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

1. No child under fifteen might be employed in any manu- 
facturing establishment, "or in any other business in this 
state," unless he had attended some public or private day 
school for at least three months of the preceding twelve. l 

2. A penalty of twenty-five dollars was fixed for violation 
of the law by any owner, agent, or superintendent of a manu- 
facturing establishment. 

3. A signed statement of the teacher, duly sworn to by him, 
was evidence that the terms of the law had been met. 

4. The school visitors 6 were required to examine into the 
condition of factory children annually, or more frequently if 
they saw fit, and were to report all violations to "some in- 
forming officer to the intent that prosecutions may be instituted 
therefor." 

5. No child under fourteen was to be employed more than 
ten hours a day in cotton or woolen mills, under penalty of 
seven dollars for each offense. 7 

Such evidence as is available indicates that, like the law of 
1813, this measure received scant attention. The section pro- 
hibiting the employment of children under fourteen for a day 
in excess of ten hours did not even propose a method of en- 
forcement. No provision was made for penalizing any viola- 
tion of the law except in the manufacturing industries, while 
the provisions for carrying out the educational features of the 
act were ludicrously insufficient. There appears here a crude 
form of employment certificate similar to that of Massachusetts 
at the time, and though employers were not required to de- 
mand such papers, their possession would settle any disputed 
case. They furnished, also, a basis for the more complete 
certificate finally evolved. 

The educational system of Connecticut was not so organized 
at this time as to make a high degree of state control possible. 
It was the period of largest local authority in education, the 
districts being legally vested with full control over the schools 
within their respective limits. 8 The idea that public schools 
were charity schools, so prevalent outside of New England, 
had affected the lofty educational conceptions of Colonial 
Connecticut. The local school societies were unwilling to tax 

6. Local school officers, comparable to school committee in Massachusetts. 

7. In the same year Massachusetts restricted the hours of factory children 
under twelve to ten in one day. 

8. Steiner, History of Ed. in Conn., p. 35. 



CONNECTICUT 89 

their constituencies, keeping the schools open each year only- 
long enough to spend the public money derived from perma- 
nent funds. 9 In 1839 a slight degree of state supervision had 
been attempted, a Board of Commissioners of Common Schools 
created, 10 and Henry Barnard called to its secretaryship, but 
the same legislature that enacted the labor-attendance law of 
1842 abolished the Commission, thus effectually checking such 
development of state influence as might eventually have arisen 
from this body. 

By 1844 there was sufficient dissatisfaction with prevailing 
educational conditions to warrant a legislative investigation. 
A committee, appointed by the governor under authority of a 
joint resolution, rendered a severe indictment of the existing 
system, which in their judgment was less effective than in 
former years. Teachers, the committee reported, were poorly 
prepared and poorly paid ;" equipment was inadequate ; about 
the school buildings there were lacking the ordinary comforts 
and decencies of life. 12 Compulsory attendance upon such 
schools could not be considered. The committee recommend- 
ed, however, as a first step in redeeming the situation, the 
creation of a state head of the schools. This, it pointed out, 
need not involve the creation of a new office, the thought of 
the committee being that some state officer already provided 
for might be vested with "authority to act in certain cases 
in interpreting and enforcing laws relating to schools." The 
committee suggested that 

"In order to enable the secretary of state, or other officer, 
to discharge this additional duty, he might be authorized to 
employ a clerk or assistant, at a moderate salary, and he might 
be allowed a small sum for printing, postage, etc." 13 

Such was the vision of a state-administered system of educa- 



9. Barnard's Journal, Vol. V, p. 119. 

10. Acts of 1838, ch. 52. Mr. Barnard as secretary of the Board instituted 
a progressive program but when his work ended with the abolishment of the 
office his remedial laws were repealed. Barnard's Journal, Vol. I, p. 719. 

11. Men received, on an average, $15.42 per month; women, $6.86 — Bpt. 
Supt. Com. Sch., 1846, p. 8. 

12. Barnard's Journal, Vol. XIII, pp. 728, 729. 

13. Ibid., p. 730. It was not unusual at this time to assign the duties of 
state superintendent of schools to some official whose status was more 
definitely established. 



90 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

tion attained by a representative group of Connecticut 's promi- 
nent citizens in 1845. 14 

In pursuance of the recommendations of the special com- 
mittee, the joint legislative committee on education reported 
a bill which was passed in both houses by large majorities. 15 
In this act of 1845 two items bear upon this study: first, the 
Commissioner of the School Fund was made ex-officio Superin- 
tendent of Common Schools ; 16 secondly, it was made the duty 
of the visitors of each school society to choose each year one 
of their number whose particular duty it should be to visit 
every common school within the jurisdiction of the society at 
least twice during the school session, and to make an annual 
report to the Superintendent of Common Schools. The visitor 
received the sum of one dollar for each day spent in the dis- 
charge of his professional duties. Such authority as the super- 
intendent enjoyed came largely from the fact that he was also 
Commissioner of the School Fund, and under the law had 
power to pass upon claims for funds which had been forfeited 
by school societies through non-conformance with the letter 
of the law. On the whole the legislation of 1845 was a de- 
cided advance towards the erection of a central authority 
strong enough to supervise and direct the educational forces 
of the state. 

The Honorable Seth Beers, Commissioner of the School Fund 
and a member of the investigating committee of 1844-1845, be- 
came the first Superintendent of Common Schools, and from 
the beginning devoted himself to a policy which foreshadowed 
the method of state control now distinguishing Connecticut in 
her school administration. He urged in succeeding reports the 
establishment of a central State Board of Education, not un- 
like that inaugurated in Massachusetts in 1838, and employing 
a full-time secretary. 17 In 1849 the legislature acting upon 
another recommendation of the Superintendent, established a 
State Normal School. The principal of this school was made 
ex-officio superintendent of common schools, and to this double 



14. John T. Norton, Seth P. Beers, C. W. Eoekwell, Isaac W. Stuart, John 
Johnston, Samuel Nichold, William T. Russell, Edward Eldridge. 

15. Barnard's Journal, op. cit. 

16. The office of Commissioner of the School Fund was created in 1810. 

17. Barnard's Journal, Vol. XIV, p. 272. 



CONNECTICUT 91 

duty Henry Barnard was called. 18 He accepted on condition 
that an associate principal be appointed to have immediate 
charge of the Normal School, leaving him free to devote him- 
self to the common schools. 19 

Mr. Beers had been deeply concerned over the irregularity 
observed in school attendance. He particularly condemned 
parents for their indifference, saying, "If a farmer were thus 
to neglect his young cattle, he would be stigmatized as hard 
hearted and improvident." 20 Mr. Barnard also devoted much 
attention to school attendance, estimating that at least 12,000 
children were receiving no instruction in either public or 
private schools. Of these, many, he said, were employed in 
factories from which they were unable to withdraw because 
of family necessities. For such, Mr. Barnard recommended 
the establishment of evening schools. 21 Singularly enough, 
though he deplored the inability of factory children to leave 
their work long enough to acquire the rudiments of an educa- 
tion, he did not commit himself to a general policy of state 
interference or control. He does not even mention the labor- 
attendance law of 1842, designed to secure for the working 
child at least a minimum of learning. Indeed, it does not ap- 
pear that he ever became deeply interested in factory children 
as a class, perhaps because his energies were devoted so com- 
pletely to the task of re-creating a general interest in public 
education. It is almost certain he had not at that time recog- 
nized the evil effects of child labor and the need of controlling 
it. The value of industry had not escaped him, however. In 
1850 he wrote: 

' ' After the age of ten or twelve, a portion of each year spent 
in the discharge of domestic duties at home, or in healthy labor 
in the field, the mill, the counting-room, or the workshop, under 
the direction and supervision of parents or natural guardians, 
will prove of more service to the physical training of most 
children, and the formation of good practical habits of thought, 

18. Dr. Barnard was secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Common 
Schools during its short existence, 1839-1842. 

19. Barnard's Journal, Vol. XIV, p. 274. 

20. Rpt., 1848, quoted by Barnard, op tit., p. 271. 

21. Barnard's Journal, Vol. XV, pp. 295f. Three-quarters of a century 
later the attendance upon evening schools of working children not graduates 
of the elementary grades was to be made compulsory. Seq., p. 104. 



92 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

feeling, and action, than if spent over books in the school- 
room." 22 

He could subscribe whole-heartedly to that part of the Con- 
necticut Code of 1650, still embodied in her laws relating to 
children, requiring: 

"That all parents and masters shall employ and bring up 
their children and apprentices in some honest and lawful call- 
ing, labor, or employment profitable for themselves and the 
State." 

The real responsibility for keeping children in school, Mr. 
Barnard felt, rested upon local school boards, and he urged 
such conditions as would attract and hold the children, with 
forfeiture of public funds in case of serious irregularity in 
attendance. Finally, when all other expedients should fail he 
advocated a suffrage restricted by an educational requirement. 23 

Mr. Barnard was a fine type of the New England scholar. 
He was a man of high ideals and broad social sympathies. One 
is justified in seeking to ascertain his attitude toward child 
labor and compulsory school attendance, for it probably repre- 
sents the most generous and statesmanlike views of the period. 
It is clear that he approved of large local responsibility in 
education, yet he recognized that only through some com- 
pulsory state direction could the masses be educated, saying: 

"As education is a want not felt by those who need it most, 
for themselves or their children, ... as it is a right which is 
inherent in every child, but which the child cannot enforce, 
and as it is an interest, both public and individual, which can- 
not safely be neglected, it is unwise and unjust to leave it to 
the sense of parental duty, or the unequal and insufficient re- 
sources of which individuals, and local authorities, under the 
stimulus of ordinary motives, will provide. If it is thus left, 
there will be the educated few and the uneducated many." 24 

During the superintendency of Dr. Barnard there was no 
significant legislation bearing upon the labor or education of 
children. A mild agitation on the question of shorter working 
hours was continued. Governor Seymour became interested 
and urged legislative action. He suggested that ten hours be 



22. Ct. Sch. Bpt., 1851, p. 11. 

23. Barnard's Journal, Vol. XV, pp. 299-302. 

24. Barnard's Journal, Vol. XV, p. 291. 



CONNECTICUT 93 

made a legal day for adult labor and eight hours for children. 25 
Evidently there was considerable opposition, joint committees 
of the two houses reporting adversely. In 1855, however, a 
law was passed, 26 providing that in absence of contract, ten 
hours should constitute a day's labor in mechanical and manu- 
facturing establishments. Children under nine years of age 
might not be employed in such establishments at all, and minors 
under eighteen were limited to eleven hours a day. The next 
year the law was amended, 27 excluding children under ten 
from factories, and lengthening the working day for minors 
to twelve hours, with a maximum of sixty-nine hours in a week. 
The penalty for violation was fixed at twenty dollars for each 
offense; enforcement was left to constables and grand jurors. 

This law, like that of 1842, gave little promise of enforce- 
ment. Nothing is said as to its effect in the educational re- 
ports until 1860, when the superintendent complains that "the 
laws relating to the employment of children in factories are 
not enforced in some parts of the state." 28 He lays the respon- 
sibility for the infraction of the law not so much upon the 
agents and superintendents of the mills employing children as 
upon "the cupidity and necessity of the parents who receive 
the pittance earned by the child." He adds, "The subject is 
becoming one of importance in our cities and manufacturing 
villages, and may call for additional legislation." 29 

The Civil War interrupted the educational program that had 
been shaping itself along the lines indicated by Seth Beers and 
Henry Barnard, but at its close there was renewed activity. 
In 1865 the proposed State Board of Education was created, 
with a paid secretary, an ex-officio member of the Board and 
its executive officer. It is this central organization with its 
large powers, acquired almost as much through custom as law, 
that has given Connecticut her unique place among the states 
in the enforcement of laws pertaining to children. 



25. Woman and Child Wage-Earners in U. S., Senate Doc. 645, 1920, Vol. 
VI, pp. 92, 93. 

26. Acts of 1855, ch. 45. 

27. Acts of 1856, ch. 39. 

28. Conn. Sch. Bpt., 1860, pp. 10, 11. 

29. Ibid. 



94 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

A truant law was enacted in the same year, 30 1865, giving 
to each town authority to make all necessary arrangements 
for the custody and education of habitual truants and idlers 
between the ages of seven and sixteen. 31 Any truant or idler 
within these ages was subject to apprehension and fine of 
twenty dollars or less, but in lieu of fine the court might com- 
mit the child to some suitable institution of instruction or 
reformation. The mayor Avas to appoint annually three or 
more persons who were vested with exclusive power to 
prosecute. 

Child labor, following the war, was apparently increasing, 
although no reliable data had been collected. The first secre- 
tary of the Board of Education, Mr. Daniel C. Gilman, made 
some inquiries in the factory districts, finding the law of 1842 
generally neglected. He, like Barnard, did not blame the 
manufacturers for the violation of the law but rather the needy 
or avaricious parents who forced their children into the mills 
in spite of occasional protests from school visitors and news- 
papers. "Public opinion," said the secretary, "does not cry 
out for the execution of the law." 32 

Secretary Gilman was confident that he could secure the 
ready cooperation of the larger manufacturers in the enforce- 
ment of a suitable law restricting the labor of young children. 33 
The Board of Education therefore set to work to secure legis- 
lation adapted to the industrial situation in the state, with 
the result that in 1869 one of the most significant educational 
laws thus far placed on the Connecticut statute books was 
enacted. In many respects it resembled the discredited law 
of 1842, but a single section probably saved it from the use- 
lessness of that measure. Its chief provisions follow : 

1. No child under fourteen might be employed in mill, 
factory, or other business unless he had attended some public 
or private school for at least three months of the preceding 
year. 

2. The penalty upon any employer for violation of the law 
was a fine of not to exceed one hundred dollars. 

30. Bev. Stat, of Conn., 1866, ch. 4, sec. 56. 

31. In. 1856 the school societies were abolished and their functions were 
transferred once more to the towns. 

32. Conn. Sch. Bpt., 1867, p. 85. 

33. Conn. Sch. Bpt., 1866, p. 83. 



CONNECTICUT 95 

3. As in the law of 1842, the sworn statement of the teacher 
held by the employer was sufficient evidence that the terms of 
the law had been met. 

4. It was made the duty of the state attorneys instead of 
the town constables and grand jurors, to enforce the law. 

5. The significant part of the measure appears in section 
three, which is: "The State Board of Education may take 
such action as may be deemed necessary to secure the enforce- 
ment of this act, and may appoint some one of its members, 
or some other suitable person, an agent for that purpose. Such 
agent shall at all times be subject to the direction and control 
of said Board, and shall be entitled to receive from the State 
Treasury for any service rendered under the provisions of this 
act, the sum of five dollars per day for the time actually em- 
ployed, and necessary expenses." 34 

The Board of Education lost no time in putting the new 
machinery of enforcement in motion. On July 21, 1869, Mr. 
Henry M. Cleveland was duly appointed agent and given the 
duty of interpreting the law and organizing his work. 35 Mr. 
Cleveland proved a tactful and efficient agent. He decided to 
gain the cooperation of the manufacturers in carrying out the 
spirit of the law rather than to resort to force in order to 
secure its immediate operation. He visited the mills and 
factories, advising that the children employed be divided into 
three groups, each group to attend school for the required 
three months, but only one group withdrawing from employ- 
ment during a given period. In this way, once adjustment 
had been made, the manufacturers could continue without 
bringing in new help. After presenting his plan to the manu- 
facturers Mr. Cleveland induced them to sign the following 
agreement : 

"We hereby agree that from and after the beginning of the 
next term of our public school (or schools) we will employ no 
children under fourteen years of age, except those who are 
provided with a certificate from the local school officers of 
actual attendance at school the full term required by law." 36 

34. A somewhat similar method of enforcement had been attempted in 
Massachusetts in 1867, but had failed. Section three, authorizing the Board 
to employ an agent to enforce the law, has remained practically unchanged 
to this day. Even the agent's remuneration has continued at precisely the 
same figure, five dollars per day and necessary expenses, through all the 
changing industrial conditions of the years 1869 to 1919. 

35. Conn. Sell. Bpt., 1870, p. 17. 

36. IUa., p. 19. 



96 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Mr. Cleveland found the manufacturers very ready to co- 
operate, only one, "the firm of Brown Brothers, of Water- 
bury," refusing to sign the agreement. 37 Some were prepared 
to give financial support to the movement to secure the educa- 
tion of the mill children. Cheney Brothers, silk manufacturers 
at Manchester, built a fine school-house at a cost of twelve 
thousand dollars, and provided three teachers at a combined 
annual salary of two thousand dollars. Governor Sprague and 
others also provided buildings. 38 

While the chief concern of those supporting the law of 1869 
was the education of factory children, the measure applied to 
all employers of children alike, merchants, mechanics, farmers, 
as well as mill owners and manufacturers. The Secretary said 
of it: 

"It recognizes the claims of the humblest child to that educa- 
tion which is essential to meet the duties and responsibilities 
of life, a claim which the state cannot neglect without detri- 
ment to itself as well as harm to a human soul." 39 

But an unexpected difficulty was encountered in enforcing 
the employment-schooling law. Mr. Cleveland had not reckoned 
with the indifference or positive hostility of parents and 
children to educational matters. It was supposed that, the 
cooperation of the factory authorities once secured, the work- 
ing children under fourteen would automatically spend three 
months of each year in school. But the agent found that many 
children sent from the mill had not entered school at all. 40 In 
other places the schools could not accommodate the pupils. 41 
In an attempt to force parents to keep their children in school 
for the minimum time a law was passed in 1871 which re- 
quired that every parent or guardian, whose child had been 
discharged temporarily for the purpose of attending school, 
send such child to school for the legal period, subject to a fine 
of five dollars for each week of neglect. The local board of 
school visitors was empowered to excuse attendance in case 
of mental or physical disability, or if found "that the 



37. Ibid., p. 20. 

38. Ibid., p. 21. 

39. Ibid., p. 33. 

40. Conn. Sch. Ept., 1871, pp. 11, 12. 

41. Ibid., 1873, p. 20. 



CONNECTICUT 97 

pecuniary necessities of the parents of such child require his 
or her continued absence from school." 42 

Little attempt was made to enforce the law applying to 
parents. It is doubtful if many of those most concerned with 
the welfare of factory children were favorable to the principle 
of compulsion at the time of the passage of this act. The 
truant law of 1865 was enforced in a few of the cities with 
satisfactory results and the measure of 1869 was not openly 
opposed by manufacturers, thanks to Cleveland's tactful ad- 
ministration. "But," said the secretary of the Board, "the 
legal right of any parent or guardian to keep his child out of 
school whenever and for whatever causes he thinks best, will 
be strenuously maintained, even if great harm results to the 
child and the community. Any attempt to remedy the evil by 
further legislation will probably do more harm than good." 43 

At this time the educational leaders in the state began to 
advocate a general compulsory attendance law. Such a 
measure, following the order of development in Massachusetts, 
would be the logical outgrowth of the laws of 1842, 1865, and 
1869 ; moreover, a national movement towards universal educa- 
tion was now expressing itself in the laws of representative 
states throughout the country. 44 Apparently there was no 
popular demand for such legislation in Connecticut, even the 
Secretary of the Board of Education regarding it as of doubt- 
ful value. 45 A careful examination of compulsory school at- 
tendance, as enforced in European countries, convinced the 
Secretary, Dr. B. G. Northrop, that such laws were not un- 
democratic, as so commonly argued in this country, but were 
truly "the legal expression of the public will." He became, 
then, after his visit abroad, a strong advocate of a compulsory 
law in Connecticut, and in 1872 such a measure was enacted. 46 

The compulsory attendance law of 1872, after restating the 
ancient requirement that those having charge of children 



42. IUd., 1872, p. 268 ; Conn. Statutes, Act of July 5, 1871, ch. 52. Excusal 
because of poverty has remained a characteristic of the Connecticut attend- 
ance laws ever since this date. 

43. Conn. Sch. Bpt., 1872, p. 17. 

44. Massachusetts, 1852 ; Michigan, 1871 ; Kansas, 1874. 

45. Conn. Sch. Bpt., 1872, p. 29. 

46. Acts, 1872, ch. 77. 



98 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

should " bring them up in some honest and lawful calling or 
employment," and cause them to be instructed in the common 
branches of learning, provided that all between the ages of 
eight and fourteen years should attend some public or private 
school for at least three months each year, unless instructed at 
home or prevented from attendance by mental or physical dis- 
ability. The law carried employment restrictions in harmony 
with the child labor act of 1869, with the same penalty, a fine 
of not more than one hundred dollars, for violation. Parents 
or guardians permitting the violation of the attendance pro- 
visions were subject to a fine of five dollars for each week of 
non-attendance, except that in no ease was the penalty to be 
continued beyond thirteen weeks in one year. 

In December, 1871, the Board of Education had accepted the 
resignation of its state agent. He had gained the good will of 
the manufacturers in his liberal administration of the child 
labor law, but had been able to accomplish little with parents 
and local school authorities. The particular work that Mr. 
Cleveland had undertaken had been completed, however, and 
for a year the Board had no representative in the field. 47 After 
the passage of the compulsory attendance law of 1872 the 
Board decided to resume the field work and in November of 
that year engaged the Honorable Giles Potter as its agent. 48 

Mr. Potter, on taking up his duties in the fall of 1872 found 
little inclination on the part of parents and local school author- 
ities to cooperate in the enforcement of the law, but manu- 
facturers, as a rule, were ready to meet its requirements. The 
certificate of schooling had not come into general use, chiefly 
because it had not been demanded by employers. 49 Mr. Potter 
sought to establish a system whereby each child under four- 
teen years, on completing a term of school, would receive a 

47. Conn. Sch. Ept., 1872, p. 15. 

48. Mr. Potter was closely in touch with educational conditions in Connecti- 
cut, having had long experience as a teacher and school supervisor. He was 
a member of the legislature in 1872, and had been active in securing the 
passage of the compulsory attendance law. He served as state agent con- 
tinuously until 1912, when he was retired on a pension, the only pension, it 
is said, ever granted a state official of Connecticut. He died in 1920, aged 
ninety-one. Doubtless he did more than any other man to establish the 
effective system of enforcing the attendance and labor laws of the state. 

49. Conn. Sch. Bpt., 1872, p. 23. 



CONNECTICUT 99 

certificate of attendance which, in case he wished to go to 
work, might be presented to the employer. In support of this 
proposal, he said: 

"Let it be understood that every child who has attended a 
Connecticut public school has a little diploma for every term, 
and no employer can have an excuse for not knowing when 
a child last attended school." 50 

An attempt was made to carry out this crude plan of pro- 
viding each public school child with a legal certificate of at- 
tendance, but school authorities frequently neglected to per- 
form their part, the way was opened for counterfeiting and 
deceit, and after a year or two the scheme was dropped. 51 

During the early years of his service Potter employed per- 
suasion rather than force in securing obedience to the law. Up 
to 1878 he had advised prosecution in but two cases, both of 
which were settled out of court. 52 There were abundant op- 
portunities for prosecution, as children of seven or eight were 
frequently employed in the mills. 53 But this form of violation 
was evidently so common that it was not regarded seriously. 
There was a tendency in the better establishments not to accept 
very young children, the labor of those under ten or twelve 
not being deemed profitable. 54 Yet so slightly had the rights 
of children impressed the people of this thrifty state that when 
the labor law was revised in 1875, the provision of 1856, that 
children under ten should not be employed in manufacturing 
establishments was omitted, leaving no age restriction what- 
ever. 55 Of this Mr. Potter said, in 1881, "I am not prepared 
to say that it should be reenacted. It is better to enforce the 
observance of a few laws than to increase the number." 58 

For a decade after its enactment the compulsory attendance 
law was little more than the expression of a public wish. 
School conditions had not improved in some sections of the 



50. Ibid., 1873, p. 3. 

51. Ibid., 1875, p. 44. No satisfactory form of working papers was adopted 
in Connecticut until 1911; seq., p. 107. 

52. Ibid., 1778, p. 24. 

53. Ibid., 1874, p. 17. 

54. Ibid., 1875, p. 47. 

55. Ibid., 1881, p. 22. 

56. Ibid. 



100 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

state since the days of Henry Barnard. The central author- 
ities had no power to compel local committees to make suitable 
provisions for their children. " There are school-houses in the 
state," reported the agent of the board, "to which no humane 
school officer can invite, much less compel, parents to send 
their children." 57 The board patiently carried forward a pro- 
gram of education among the people, as among manufacturers, 
keeping the penalties of the law in the background, 58 resorting 
to the courts only in extreme cases. 59 In the end, compliance 
with the law became general. Those who refused to meet its 
requirements were more frequently brought before the court 
and fined; in 1882 one father who was particularly obdurate 
was permitted to serve a three weeks' term in jail. 60 

It is worthy of note that in the attempt to develop respect 
for the law in Connecticut the cooperation of the courts was 
more cordial than in Massachusetts or New York. Prior to 
1882 the justice and police courts did not have final jurisdic- 
tion over cases arising out of the child labor law, and in case 
of prosecution there was frequently an appeal to a higher 
court. At this time the penalty for violation, one hundred 
dollars, was considered excessive, and the courts, as well as 
the state's attorneys apparently sympathized with the em- 
ployer, who was often able to effect a settlement by partial 
payment of the costs. In 1882 the jurisdiction of the lower 
courts was extended and the fine made not to exceed sixty 
dollars. After that date prosecutions were almost uniformly 
successful in the first instance. 61 

In the decade 1880 to 1890, there was a distinct tendency 
not only to enforce the laws affecting the employment and 
education of children more strictly, but to enact more stringent 
measures. In 1885 the period of compulsory attendance at 
school was extended to include the years eight to sixteen, but 
it was provided that children over fourteen need not attend 
if "properly employed to labor at home or elsewhere," and 

57. Ibid., 1873, p. 23. 

58. Ibid., 1879, p. 24. 

59. Ibid., 1880, p. 20. 

60. Ibid., 1883, p. 26. 

61. Ibid., 1886, p. 47. 



CONNECTICUT 101 

that those under fourteen were not subject to the act if they 
had attended twelve weeks of the preceding twelve months 
and were regularly employed. This left the employment of 
very young children entirely unregulated, subject only to the 
sixty days of school attendance. Secretary Hines recommend- 
ed the reenaetment of the law of 1856, excluding from fac- 
tories all children under ten years of age. He said in part: 

"The number of children between the ages of eight and ten 
now employed is not so large that their exclusion from fac- 
tories would derange any industry, nor could the education of 
the school for those years and the intermission of labor materi- 
ally interfere with the acquirement of ultimate skill in any 
trade or calling." 62 

This last observation was in reply to the argument that a 
child must enter early upon his labors in order to acquire skill 
in the chosen industry, an argument advanced regardless of 
the fact that the great majority of children were given in the 
textile mills only "blind alley" occupations. 

In 1886 the legislature went decidedly further than the 
secretary had recommended, laying upon the employment of 
children the following restrictions: 63 

1. No child under thirteen could be employed in any me- 
chanical, mercantile, or manufacturing establishment. 

2. Any violation was punishable by a fine of not more than 
sixty dollars. 

3. An employer could not be held guilty if he had on file 
a certificate from the town clerk or from any teacher of a 
school attended by the child, or from the parent or guardian, 
to the effect that the child was thirteen years of age. 

4. The penalty for false statement by parent or guardian 
was a fine of not more than sixty dollars. 

5. Enforcement was laid upon the State Board of Educa- 
tion, local school visitors and town committees. 

6. The Board of Education was authorized to employ agents 
to assist in enforcement. 

Secretary Hines 64 was frankly skeptical as to the wisdom of 
this measure, so far in advance of previous requirements. He 
had believed the state to be ready to exclude from factories 



62. Conn. Sch. Kpt., 1886, p. 35. 

63. Acts, 1886, ch. 124. 

64. Charles D. Hines was called in 1884 to the secretaryship of the Board 
of Education, a place which he still occupies. 



102 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

children under ten, but this law advanced three years 
beyond that age. The law he thought would bear heavily upon 
parents who might be dependent upon the earnings of their 
children; the children themselves, kept so long from learning 
to work, would suffer. He feared, also, the enforced idleness 
of the long vacations and the effect upon those who, under 
former conditions, might be bribed to attend school for three 
months by the prospect of remunerative employment for the 
rest of the year. 65 

The Board prepared to enforce the law vigorously, appoint- 
ing six additional agents to assist in the work. Experience 
had shown that very little aid might be expected from local 
officials. As early as possible an attempt was made to ascer- 
tain the manufacturers' attitude toward the measure. Of 
thirty-nine interrogated, thirty-one were favorable, the follow- 
ing reasons being advanced in its support by various 
employers : 

1. Children under thirteen years of age ought not to be 
employed, but should be in school regularly. 

2. The labor of children under thirteen years of age is not 
profitable. 

3. A youth is more likely to become thoroughly skillful and 
useful if not put at work earlier than thirteen. 66 

The eight employers opposed to the law advanced practically 
the same reasons as those suggested by Secretary Hines. The 
agents, in touch with the actual conditions throughout the 
state reported the law as too drastic, and suggested as a 
compromise that children under eleven be excluded from 
the restricted employments, while those under fourteen be 
employed only during the vacations of the schools. Fortun- 
ately their suggestions were not adopted by the legislature. 
The agents did not permit their skepticism as to the wisdom 
of the law to interfere with their efforts to enforce it. As in 
the case of the earlier regulations parents were found most 
difficult to deal with, 67 though opposition also came from vari- 
ous towns whose officials feared that certain families, lacking 
the income formerly derived from the labor of their children, 



65. Conn. Sch. Bpt., 1887, p. 56 ff. 

66. Ibid., p. 117. 

67. Ibid., pp. 117, 118, 



CONNECTICUT 103 

would be brought upon the town as public charges. 68 But by 
a judicious use of the support which the agents could now 
command from the state's attorneys and the courts, the children 
were gradually drawn out of industry until in 1890 the em- 
ployment of those under thirteen except in agriculture had 
practically ceased. 69 Further, the Secretary of the Board of 
Education reported that there was no evidence that the pre- 
vention of juvenile labor had stopped the machinery in any 
industry, raised the price of a single manufactured article, or 
caused more than occasional hardship anywhere. 70 

By this time the special agents who had been appointed to 
aid in enforcing the law of 1886 had been withdrawn, leaving 
Giles Potter with a single assistant to carry forward the work 
in the entire state. The regular routine involved the follow- 
ing kinds of activities: 71 examination of enumeration lists; 
examination of school records; visitation of schools; visitation 
of establishments employing children; visitation of families. 
That the work of the agents had assumed extensive proportions 
at the close of this decade is shown in the summary of their 
activities for the year 1888-1889, as follows: 72 

Towns visited 73 52 

Cases investigated 1976 

Families visited 1329 

Children absent from school with legal excuse 937 

Lack of clothing 112 

Due to mental or physical disability 204 

At work legally 621 

Children illegally absent 598 

Absence due to neglect 533 

Illegally at work 65 

Children sent to school 601 

Parents prosecuted 32 

Employers prosecuted 16 



68. Conn. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1886, p. xix. 

69. Conn. Sch. JRpt., 1890, p. 42. 

70. Ibid. 

71. Ibid., 1889, p. 39. 

72. Ibid., 1890, p. 47. 

73. Refers to the Connecticut town or township, which in many cases might 
have within its limits several villages and factory towns or a city. 



104 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Children sent to reform and industrial schools 16 

Children sent to County Home 14 

At this time the two conspicuously weak points in the Con- 
necticut labor and attendance laws were the inadequate age 
and schooling certificate and the short period of compulsory 
attendance. In 1892 the Bureau of Labor Statistics undertook 
to ascertain by means of a questionary whether or not public 
opinion would support a still further advance in age and 
schooling requirements. Inquiries were sent to manufactur- 
ers, teachers, working men, and physicians. The Bureau con- 
cluded that sentiment favored an increase in the minimum 
term of schooling, if at the same time the age of employment 
was advanced to fourteen years. Conclusions were based 
largely on the opinions of manufacturers, physicians, and 
teachers, as very few working men replied to the inquiry. 74 

The Bureau had also undertaken to ascertain what propor- 
tion of the children entering school dropped out before the 
completion of the elementary course. Data gathered indicated 
that a very large number left the school without finishing the 
eighth grade, ''rising in some schools, particularly those in 
manufacturing communities, to sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, 
and even one hundred per cent." 75 

In 1893 and 1895 the compulsory school and attendance laws 
were extended and strengthened. In 1893 evening schools, 
already established in the larger centers, were made com- 
pulsory in all towns and school districts of 10,000 and up- 
ward, 76 and attendance upon them was required of all factory 
employees in such districts between fourteen and sixteen, 
and unable to read and write. In 1895 the requirements of the 
attendance and labor law were revised, substituting fourteen 
for thirteen, requiring that all children between eight and 
fourteen attend school for the full session, continuing until 
sixteen, if not regularly employed. 77 At the same time em- 



74. Bpt. Conn. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1892-93, pp. 192 ff. 

75. Ibid., 1894, p. 276. 

76. Acts, 1893, ch. 227. 

77. Acts, 1895, ch. 134. In 1919 it was provided that all working children 
between fourteen and sixteen, with schooling not equivalent to that re- 
quired for the completion of the elementary grades, should attend evening 
schools, where established, for not less than eight hours a week for at least 
sixteen weeks each year. Acts, 1919, ch. 198. 



CONNECTICUT 105 

ployment in any mechanical, mercantile, or manufacturing 
establishment under the age of fourteen was prohibited. Since 
full time attendance at school was now required of all children 
up to the minimum age for legal employment, the certificate 
of attendance was no longer necessary, but the age certificate 
became more important than before. The old, unsatisfactory 
form was continued, a statement signed by the town clerk, a 
teacher, or, if the signature of neither could be procured, by 
parent or guardian, certifying that the child had reached the 
age of fourteen years. The penalty for falsifying a certificate 
remained, as before, a fine of not to exceed sixty dollars. 

Connecticut had now reached as high a standard in both age 
and schooling requirements as had been attained anywhere, 
leading the larger number of states in both respects. It re- 
mained for her to improve the details of the laws and their 
administration, to strengthen favorable public sentiment and 
to further improve her schools. Very decided progress had 
been made since the enactment of the law of 1886. At that 
time even the optimistic Secretary of the Board had felt certain 
that the friends of children had been over-ambitious and hasty. 
The field agents had suggested a compromise and public senti- 
ment had declared the measure too drastic. Now, with public 
sentiment fairly well organized and back of the compelling 
measures these new regulations were accepted without protest. 
Indeed, there were some who held that the lower limit for 
employment might well be set at fifteen instead of fourteen. 78 

It is not to be understood that these laws were now self- 
enforcing. Local authorities very reluctantly gave their sup- 
port to the state agents. It was often difficult, in case of viola- 
tion persistent enough to demand prosecution, to induce a 
grand juror to sign a complaint against a fellow-townsman. 79 
Many inconspicuous lines of industry were offering employ- 
ment to children who had been effectively excluded from the 
larger mills and factories. 80 To meet this last situation the 
law was further amended in 1899, making it illegal to employ 

78. fipt. Conn. Bu. of Lab. Stat., 1895, p. 15. 

79. Conn. Sch. Bpt., 1897, p. 40. Purely local administration of attendance 
and child labor laws has nowhere proven successful. 

80. Ibid., 1898, p. 39. 



106 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

a child under fourteen years of age in any kind of labor dur- 
ing school hours. 81 

In Connecticut, as in other states, teachers had rendered 
little systematic service in enforcing the labor and attendance 
laws. In 1898 each teacher outside the towns employing 
superintendents was asked to report attendance every month 
to a certain agent, with such additional special reports as 
might be necessary. It was hoped that through this closer 
relationship to the state a feeling of responsibility for the good 
name of school and community might extend from the teacher 
to pupil and parent. 82 This was the beginning of a system 
later authorized by law, which has done much to secure general 
cooperation with the Educational Department throughout the 
state. 

For many years the faulty age certificate had persisted, the 
weakest point in the compulsory laws. Town and school 
records were poorly kept and inadequate. Town clerks and 
teachers were not as a rule deeply concerned in securing 
authoritative data, and doubtless many children under four- 
teen received certificates qualifying them for factory em- 
ployment. Besides, a child born outside the state and one 
who for any reason could not secure a certificate of age from 
the clerk or a teacher might present a parent's statement of 
age. These were notoriously unreliable, but the burden of 
proof fell upon the state, evidence was difficult to secure, and 
many children clearly under legal age continued to enter em- 
ployment in defiance of the frequent visits of the state agents. 
In 1905 a measure was enacted which put a powerful weapon 
into the hands of local school committees and the Board of 
Education, one which is still employed to good effect. This 
law provides that whenever a town school committee, the 
school visitors, or the Board of Education determine that a 
child over fourteen and under sixteen has not had suf- 
ficient schooling to satisfy the spirit of the law, they may 
notify the parent and cause such child to attend school regu- 
larly. 83 The law, while not often invoked, enabled the agents 



81. Acts, 1899, ch. 19. 

82. Conn. Soli, Bpt., 1899, p. 47. 

83. Acts, 1905, ch. 36, amending ch. 20, Acts of 1903. 



CONNECTICUT 107 

to counteract in part the flagrant weakness of the age certifi- 
cate and to keep in school children who otherwise would have 
escaped even exposure to the means of education. 

In 1911 and 1913 the final legal steps were taken which 
brought the Connecticut child labor law to the form in which, 
with unimportant changes, it is now operating. The law of 
1911 provided for a more adequate certificate of age and educa- 
tion issued only under the authority of the State Board of 
Education under conditions to be described presently. 84 In 
1913 those who had advocated vacation certificates won their 
point and a law was enacted providing that any child in good 
physical condition and between fourteen and sixteen years of 
age should, on personal application to the secretary or to an 
agent of the State Board of Education, be granted a temporary 
certificate permitting his employment during the summer 
vacation. 85 

The law of 1911 provides that no child under sixteen years 
of age shall be employed in any mechanical, mercantile, or 
manufacturing establishment unless the employer has first ob- 
tained a certificate signed by the secretary or an agent of the 
State Board of Education, or by a school officer designated by 
that board, showing that the child is over fourteen years of 
age, is able to read with facility, to write simple sentences 
legibly, to perform the operations of the fundamental rules of 
arithmetic in both whole numbers and fractions, and does not 
appear physically unfit for employment. 86 

These laws, together with the compulsory school laws, truant 
laws, and measures relating to hours of labor and dangerous 
occupations constitute the legal measures adopted by Connecti- 
cut for the protection of her children. In certain respects they 
are not ideal, failing to measure up to the legal standards 
found on the statute books of many other states. But the 
centralization in the hands of the State Board of Education 
of nearly all phases of their enforcement and administration 
has led to the development of a system of unusual efficiency. 
The State Board has interpreted the law broadly, including 

84. Acts, 1911, ch. 119. 

85. Acts, 1913, ch. 211. 

86. Acts, 1911, ch. 119. 



108 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

among ' 'mechanical, mercantile, and manufacturing" activities 
practically every form of occupation; requiring employment 
certificates of all child laborers except newsboys and those en- 
gaged in agricultural and domestic pursuits. 87 The method 
of administering these laws is set out in some detail in the 
following pages. 88 

School Attendance. The law requires that every child be- 
tween the ages of seven and sixteen shall attend a public day 
school for the entire session unless "receiving regularly 
thorough instruction during said hours and terms in the studies 
taught in the public schools." Children over fourteen years 
of age are not subject to this requirement if "lawfully em- 
ployed at labor at home or elsewhere," except that in case the 
school visitors, town school committee, board of education of 
any town or district, or State Board of Education shall decide 
that a child between fourteen and sixteen years of age has not 
had sufficient schooling to warrant employment, he may be re- 
quired to attend school until the desired conditions have been 
met or until he reaches his sixteenth birthday. 

The machinery for enforcing attendance has developed 
gradually since the appointment of the first state agent in 1869. 
The force of the state board of education now consists of eight 
agents, two of whom are designated as attendance officers, de- 
voting the major portion of their time to this specific work. 
All the agents are active in the enforcement of all phases of 
the law, however, and to that end all are really attendance 
officers. In the larger cities and towns local attendance officers 
are employed, who, aided by the teachers, follow up all children 
of school age not legally employed and reported out of school 
or irregular in attendance. Serious cases and those which 
cannot be located are reported to an agent of the State Board, 
who is ready to cooperate at all times. In districts and towns 
not maintaining attendance officers, teachers or other school 



87. U. S. Dpt. of Labor, Children's Bureau, Pub. No. 12, 1915, Ad. of Ch. 
Lab. Laivs in Conn., p. 8. 

88. Material for this section was collected largely from printed reports and 
forms of the Connecticut State Board of Education, and in personal con- 
ferences with state officials and local officials in the city of Hartford. The 
writer has also drawn freely upon the admirable study made for the Federal 
Children's Bureau by Miss Helen L. Sumner and Miss Ethel E. Hanks. 
Bureau Publications, No. 12, 1915. 



CONNECTICUT 109 

officers report each month to the agent in charge of their dis- 
trict, listing all cases of non-attendance or irregularity. More 
frequent reports are made if occasion demands. All these 
cases are followed up by the agent and the children are usually 
returned to school unless they have left the state. Parochial 
schools are not required by law or by the ruling of the State 
Board to report absences to the attendance officers, but their 
registers must be open to the inspection of the state education- 
al authorities. 89 These schools, the agents say, are, as a rule, 
cooperating with the compelling officers, thus making it ex- 
ceedingly difficult for any child to disappear from the school 
system either as a truant or as an illegal employee in factory 
or shop. 

It must not be supposed that every child of proper age is 
kept in school. "Public sentiment," writes one of the agents, 
"does not yet everywhere sustain literal enforcement of the 
attendance law. The belief that deprivation of schooling is 
an offense not only against the child but against the public 
welfare is not universal." 90 Yet patient and sympathetic ef- 
forts of teachers, supervisors, and state agents, together with 
steadily improving schools, are resulting in continued im- 
provement in attendance. 91 

The School Census. 92 Closely connected with school attend- 
ance is the school census. With the highly organized machinery 
of the state board, one might expect in Connecticut a con- 
tinuous school census with the resulting check upon all children 
of school age. Apparently no effort has been made to secure 
this modern aid to the enforcement of child labor and attend- 
ance laws. A school census is taken annually in September 
under the direction of the school committees of the various 
districts, the efficiency and accuracy of the work depending 
entirely upon local conditions. All persons over four and 
under sixteen years of age are supposed to be listed. The 
census, though taken primarily to afford a proper basis for 



89. Bev. Statutes, 1902, par. 2104. 

90. Conn. Sch. Bpt., 1912-13, p. 11. 

91. Ibid., 1913-14, p. 30. 

92. Gen. Statutes, revision of 1902, sec. 2252 and 2255, as amended by Acts 
of 1913, ch. 182. 



110 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

the distribution of the school funds, is of great service to the 
compelling officers. Early in the school term the school records 
and the enumeration lists are compared and any discrepancies 
must be accounted for. The census brings to the attention of 
the proper officers the names of the children who have come 
into the state since the preceding enumeration, and who have 
not entered school. The law also directs that if the enumerat- 
ors find children not attending school they shall ascertain the 
reason for non-attendance, and if such children are at work, 
they shall report the names of their employers or of the es- 
tablishments where they are employed. Information thus 
gathered is of great assistance in enforcing both the attend- 
ance and the labor laws. 

The investigation conducted by Miss Sumner and Miss 
Hanks reveals a varying degree of accuracy in conducting the 
school census. In certain places forms and methods have been 
devised which approach the accuracy of a continuous census; 
in others several hundred names appear to be omitted each 
year. 93 The State Board of Education finds the present census, 
imperfect though it is, of great assistance in bringing children 
into school, but why it has not vigorously demanded a con- 
tinuous census, maintained under its own direction, is difficult 
to understand. At present there is no way to insure contact 
with children coming to the state during the year, after the 
annual enumeration. Nor is there assurance that children 
omitted in the unscientific enumeration may not be out of 
school and illegally employed. In a state which depends pri- 
marily upon a strict enforcement of school attendance as the 
safeguard against illegal employment, an adequate school 
census, amended from day to day, would appear to be in- 
dispensable. 

The Employment Certificate. 94 Prior to 1911 an age certifi- 
cate was required, but it might be secured from the town clerk 
or from any teacher of a school the applicant had attended, 
or in case such record were not available, the parent's state- 
ment was accepted. The brief laws of 1911 and 1913, broadly 
interpreted by the Board of Education, afford a foundation 

93. Children's Bureau, Publication No. 12, p. 29. 
94] Acts, 1911, ch. 119, 1913, ch. 211. 



CONNECTICUT 111 

for an adequate employment certificate. Certificates are issued 
only at the central offices of the State Board of Education, at 
Hartford, or at an office of an agent of the board. They are 
issued in triplicate, one copy for the files of the state board, 
one for the employer, and one for the parent of the child. The 
employer's copy is usually sent him by mail, though in some 
cases it is carried to him by the child. On termination of em- 
ployment the employer is not required to return the certificate, 
but both at the beginning and the termination of employment 
he must notify the state board on forms provided for the pur- 
pose and attached to his copy of the certificate. 

When a child leaves employment he may take another place 
and work for one week on his parents' copy of the original 
certificate. Meanwhile, a new certificate must be secured. 
After a certificate has once been granted subsequent ones are 
issued either by the agent issuing the original, or by the state 
board, no further examination or formality being required. 

The applicant for a certificate must appear in person at the 
main office or the office of an agent, accompanied by one of 
his parents or by his guardian. He must present an employ- 
ment ticket or other written promise of work signed by the 
proposed employer, must offer evidence of the date of his birth, 
a doctor's certificate that he is physically fit to work, and 
must prove either by school record or examination that he 
meets the educational requirements. 95 The law requires mere- 
ly evidence of age, the physical examination and proof of the 
proper educational acquirements. The state board has formu- 
lated the other requirements on the assumption that they are 
implied in the law. 

The child labor law makes no specific requirement as to 
school attendance, but many of the towns, under authority of 
the act of 1905 have fixed a minimum leaving grade varying 
from the fifth to the seventh. In issuing working papers the 
agent may either give an examination in the required subjects, 
reading, writing, and arithmetic, or accept the leaving certifi- 
cate of the local school authorities. No child is given a certi- 
ficate of employment, however, unless he meets the leaving 



95. Acts, 1919, ch. 264. Requires examination by a physician designated by 
the State Board of Education. 



112 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

requirements, where a minimum has been determined, of the 
town in which he resides. 

Prior to 1919 no physical examination was required, though 
the law gave abundant authority to the representatives of the 
State Board of Education and to other school officials to send 
the applicant to any reputable physician for such examination, 
charging the expense against the state. Only when, in the 
judgment of the agent, there was doubt as to the physical 
fitness of an applicant was an examination demanded, but if 
a child found at work appeared to be in poor health he might 
be sent by the inspecting officer to a physician and excluded 
from employment until pronounced fit to resume labor. 

Acting under the very general provisions of the law the 
State Board of Education has worked out a reasonably 
adequate method of determining whether or not the applicant 
for working papers is of legal age. In case documentary 
evidence of age is not available, however, the affidavit of 
parent or guardian is accepted. 

Enforcement of the Labor and Attendance Laws. Notwith- 
standing the large degree of unity prevailing in Connecticut 
in the administration of laws controlling the labor and school- 
ing of children there are two separate sets of inspectors, one 
enforcing the laws regulating hours of labor, character of em- 
ployment and the like, the other looking after all phases re- 
lating to age, health, school attendance and working papers, 
the former representing the department of factory inspection, 
the latter, the State Board of Education. For the purposes of 
this study little attention need be given to the duties of the 
factory inspectors. These officials are chiefly concerned with 
the material conditions under which labor is employed in fac- 
tories and mercantile establishments throughout the state. 96 
In practice there is, apparently, rather close cooperation be- 
tween the two sets of inspectors. 

The regular agents of the State Board of Education 97 per- 



96. Of 1269 orders given by the factory inspectors in a single year, but 14 
referred directly to children, these having reference to the employment of 
minors under sixteen in unsuitable occupations. Bpt. State Factory Inspec- 
tor, 1914, pp. 44-68. 

97. Additional agents are employed from time to time, when it seems neces- 
sary to make an intensive canvass of the state or of any particular district. 



CONNECTICUT 113 

form a great variety of duties. They must maintain regular 
office hours, usually in several different towns or cities, for 
the purpose of issuing employment certificates; they hold 
monthly meetings at the capital in order to compare notes and 
determine policies; they visit as frequently as possible the 
seven thousand establishments where children are employed ; 
they stimulate school attendance, follow up questionable cases, 
confer with parents and teachers, assist local attendance 
officers, and attend to a vast amount of routine business in 
connection with records and reports. They do not have the 
power to prosecute for violation of the laws but can only re- 
port to the state's attorney for the district, who alone has 
authority to bring action. Inability to hale an offender into 
court does not necessarily handicap the agents of the board. 
The spirit of their work, established long ago by Henry M. 
Cleveland and Giles Potter, is that of friendly, sympathetic 
cooperation with children, parents, and employers, rather than 
that of compulsion. Something of this spirit might be lost 
were the agents to be vested with power to bring legal action. 98 

The Unemployed Child. Theoretically, the child under six- 
teen years of age returns to school immediately on termination 
of employment unless he secures another place, in which case 
he has a week in which to obtain a new certificate." In prac- 
tice, the child who has once been granted regular working 
papers is extremely unlikely ever to return to school. Usually 
the child who leaves the regular day school for employment 
does not wish to return and will do so only under compulsion. 
The administrative machinery is not so closely adjusted even 
in Connecticut, but that there may be a considerable lapse of 
time between the termination of employment and action on 
the part of the compelling officer. Further, the schools, as 
now organized, have little to offer to the child who has once 
lost step, nor are teachers anxious to receive him in their nice- 
ly graded classes. 

At present the state does little for the certificated child out 



98. In the school year 1919-1920, twenty-three employers and eighty-four 
parents were fined for the violation of laws relating to the employment and 
schooling of children. 

99. He may work for one week on the parents' copy of the original certifi- 
cate. 



114 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

of a job. His educational problem is not likely to be solved 
until Connecticut provides for a system of compulsory con- 
tinuation schools for working children, with special all-day 
classes for those temporarily out of employment. 100 

Miss Sumner and Miss Hanks conclude: "The strongest 
single feature of the Connecticut system and, indeed, the source 
of most of its other strong features, seems to be the centraliza- 
tion of control over the entire procedure relating to certifi- 
cates throughout the state in the hands of the State Board of 
Education." 101 This statement may be accepted without reser- 
vation. Here there is the most practical recognition of the 
close relationship of compulsory school attendance and the 
control of child employment to be found in the Union. While 
the statutes leave much to be desired, they are so interpreted 
and administered by the board of education as to place the 
state well to the fore in the control and supervision of working 
children. With the establishment of suitable compulsory con- 
tinuation education the conditions could easily be made most 
admirable. It would seem that other states might well profit 
by this example of centralized authority with accompanying 
efficiency in administration. 



100. The required attendance upon evening classes as provided in the law 
of 1919 can, in no adequate way, meet the educational needs. 

101. Children's Bureau, Pub. No. 12, p. 51. 



CHAPTER VI 
NEW YORK 

The first compulsory education law in the state of New York 
was a special measure enacted in 1831 requiring that all 
children between five and sixteen years of age detained in 
county poor-houses "be taught and educated in the same 
manner as children are now taught in the common schools of 
this state, at least one-fourth part of the time said paupers 
shall remain in said poor-houses." 1 In order to meet the re- 
quirements of this law schools were established within the 
poor-houses themselves. They were, as might be expected, of 
inferior grade, yet were maintained for many years, affording 
the sole means of instruction to thousands of children. 2 

The first task of those interested in universal education in 
this state was to secure legislation requiring the establishment 
and support of public schools by local communities throughout 
the commonwealth. It was not until 1848 that such legislation 
was enacted, 3 and even then great difficulty was experienced 
in enforcing its requirements; indeed, the rural communities, 
by a decided majority voted in 1850 to abandon the newly 
established system, and it was only by the dominating in- 
fluence of the cities that the law was retained. It was not 
possible to make the system entirely free and universal 
throughout the state until 1867. 4 

The earlier attitude towards the labor of young children 
was maintained more persistently in New York than in any 
other northern state. In 1830 a prominent newspaper ex- 

1. Laws of New York, 1831, ch. 277. 

2. As late as 1875, 2,795 children were enrolled in these poor-house schools 
— Senate Documents, 1S75, 52, p. 7. In this year it was made unlawful to 
commit children between three and sixteen years of age to the public poor- 
houses (Laws of 1875, ch. 173), yet the schools persisted for some time, 
there being in 1889 608 children receiving instruction in the institutions. — 
Senate Documents, 1889, No. 40. 

3. Laws of 1849, ch. 140. 

4. Laws of 1867, ch. 406. 

115 



116 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

pressed what was probably a generally accepted opinion in 

saying: 

"The trades and handicrafts generally must be continued; 
a full apprenticeship must be served; and with these neces- 
sities of society a full, liberal education for the artisans and 
laboring youth would be incompatible. The thriving master- 
mechanics might, as they can now do, place their children on 
a level with the wealthy, in point of education ; but they must 
ever employ boys and men comparatively uneducated, or their 
business would be at an end." 5 

But, as in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, working men 
were not willing to live under the limitations which the more 
aristocratic social groups had laid upon them, as is evidenced 
in the long and bitter fight they waged for shorter hours of 
labor and for free schools. Outside their ranks, however, the 
idea of anything like equal educational opportunity for the 
children of the poor and the rich was very remote. 6 The in- 
fluence of labor was sufficient to secure in 1830 the appoint- 
ment of a legislative committee to inquire into the state system 
of apprenticeship. This committee made a superficial study 
of the conditions of labor in some of the larger factories. It 
was found that young children were at work in crowded rooms, 
poorly ventilated, and at labor excessively severe. The report 
indicates that child labor had already reached a stage which 
might have aroused grave concern had there been sufficient 
agitation. But this was a period when it was not safe to offend 
employers of labor lest they remove their industries to a more 
liberal state. ..The committee, therefore, hastened to take the 
edge from their criticism by extolling the virtues of the manu- 
facturers to whom they referred as "''those patriotic men, who, 
in the pursuit of wealth in a laudable business, have volun- 
tarily established such regulations to insure, so far as prac- 
ticable to the children and youth under their care and in their 



5. New YorTc Morning Herald, Aug. 25, 1830; quoted in Doc. Hist. Am. 
Indust. Soc, Vol. V, pp. 113-114. 

6. The effect of this attitude towards the children of the working classes 
and the long continued system of charitable or semi-charitable education 
may yet be seen. It is not difficult, in certain parts of the state, to find 
people, even among those of only moderate means, who regard the public 
school as a semi-charitable organization, and who, at considerable sacrifice, 
educate their children in private institutions. 



NEW YORK 117 

employ, habits of industry, skill in an art or trade, decency 
of person and deportment, comfort, health, a moral, religious 
and business education — beautifully illustrating in their little 
communities the inestimable value of moral worth." 7 Again 
in 1836 a half-hearted attempt was made to provide some 
educational opportunities for factory children, but the methods 
by which the agitators were quieted and legislative action 
blocked would indicate that already those who were profiting 
by unrestricted child labor were well organized in the 
Assembly. 8 It is clear, however, that the dangers of the sit- 
uation were beginning to be realized at this time. The Secre- 
tary of State, in his capacity as superintendent of common 
schools, frequently called attention to the fact that many young 
children were employed in the factories of the state and very 
guardedly suggested relief through some form of compulsory 
education, saying, in one instance, that parents, disregarding 
the obligations resting upon them, "ought to be visited with 
such disabilities as will induce them, from interest if not from 
principle, to cause the child to be instructed at least in read- 
ing, writing, and arithmetic." 9 

That child labor was recognized as a real problem by the 
time the establishment of public schools throughout the state 
had been made compulsory upon communities is clearly set 
out in other reports of the superintendent. 10 Meanwhile, the 
working men in seeking to gain the ten-hour day, were ad- 
vocating a limit to the employment of children. Through their 
influence a bill was introduced in 1849 providing for the ex- 
clusion from factories, furnaces and workshops of children 
under six years of age, while those under twelve were not to 
be employed in such establishments without their consent for 
more than eight hours in any one day. An unsuccessful at- 
tempt was made to attach a schooling clause to this bill, but 
without such provision it finally passed the House, only to 



7. Assembly Documents, 1832, No. 308, p. 176. See also Woman and Child 
Wage-Earners in U. S., Vol. VI, p. 104. 

8. Assembly Documents, 1836, No. 233, p. 4; Woman and Child Wage- 
Earners in U. S., op. cit., p. 107. 

9. Bpt. Supt. Com. Schs., 1832, p. 23. 

10. For example, 1849, p. 20; 1852, p. 23. 



118 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

die in committee in the Senate. 11 Apparently labor and educa- 
tional interests were unable alone to secure favorable con- 
sideration at the hands of the Assembly, but in 1853 philan- 
thropic organizations in the state made a special plea for 
legislation to check truancy. The governor, in his annual 
message, supported the movement and a legislative committee 
was appointed to consider the matter. This committee, in its 
report, advocated in more definite terms than had hitherto been 
employed, a mild form of compulsory school attendance, con- 
cluding with : 

"If the parent, guardian, or master of the child is intemper- 
ate, incompetent, or indifferent, the law should take their 
place, and see that the child is properly trained. If they are 
avaricious, and desire to speculate for gain out of the tender 
bone and sinews of the child, to the entire neglect of its mental 
and moral culture, and the debasement of its character, the 
strong hand of the law should restrain that avarice and en- 
force the child's just rights." 12 

This report was followed by the well known truancy law 
of 1853, 13 the chief provisions of which are as follows: 

1. Children between the ages of five and fourteen found 
wandering in the streets or lanes of any city or incorporated 
village, idle and truant, without any lawful occupation, might 
be restrained from wandering about and might be required to 
remain upon the premises of parent or guardian, or caused to 
engage in some lawful occupation, and might be required to 
attend school for at least four months each year until four- 
teen years of age. 

2. The court was given power to require the parent or 
guardian to enter into a written agreement to fulfill these 
obligations, giving security for the same. 

3. If, within a reasonable time the parent or guardian 
failed to meet the requirements of the law, the child might be 
put under the charge of the overseers of the poor, set at work 
by them, and given instruction in the elementary branches, or 
ho might be bound out by them as an apprentice. 

4. In case the parent or guardian entered into a written 
agreement to care for the child according to the terms of the 
law and it was found that he "habitually and intentionally" 

11. Senate Journal, 1849, p. 453. 

12. Assembly Documents, 1853, No. 94, p. 2. 

13. Laws of 1853, eh. 185. 



NEW YORK 119 

violated that agreement, an action might be brought against 
him and penalty recovered to the extent of fifty dollars and 
costs. 

This measure in no respect met the evils of child labor; 
rather, it encouraged the employment of the young children 
of the poor. It shows little advance over the English poor law 
of the Elizabethan period in its conception of the rights of 
childhood, yet it was not repugnant to the public opinion of 
the time, accustomed to accept the education of the children 
of the poor as a worthy form of public charity. 14 But a pro- 
gressive element was beginning to recognize the inconsistency 
of an educational system which, in a state whose existence was 
dependent upon a free and intelligent citizenship, deliberately 
pauperized the children of those who could not pay the rates 
still almost universally required, and as an alternative sent 
them, without schooling, into the mills and factories as opera- 
tives. Governor Myron G. Clark, who was committed to the 
free-school program, pointed out in one of his annual messages 
to the legislature the defects of the school law which provided 
that those unable to pay the assessed rates should be relieved 
at public expense, thus becoming "the recipients of public 
charity." "The worst features of the old law have been pre- 
served," he said. "Education is still regarded as a matter of 
charity and not a right." 15 

The law of 1853, unsupported by any general attendance or 
child labor provisions, and with inadequate means of enforce- 
ment, was of little value beyond its slight service in pointing 
the way to later advancement. 16 There was no further legis- 
lation of this nature for a period of twenty-one years, when, 
in 1874 the first general compulsory school attendance law of 
the state was enacted. Following the Civil War labor interests 
had again become active and had renewed the long interrupt- 
ed agitation for the restriction of child labor. The claims of 
adult labor had, however, been placed first, and it was not un- 



14. Assembly Documents, 1855, No. 3, p. 13. 

15. Ibid., p. 14. 

16. Charles E. Fitch, in his ''History of the Common School in New York," 
speaking of this law says, "It was, however, enforced spasmodically and 
irrationally, if it may be said that it was enforced at all." Bpt. N. Y. 
Supt. Pub. Inst., 1904, p. 95. 



120 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

til 1871 when those interested in the Children's Aid Society 
of New York City turned their attention to legislation, that a 
definite program in behalf of the child was undertaken. In 
that year a bill looking to the relief of factory children was 
introduced, but, due to the strong opposition of merchants and 
manufacturers, it was successfully resisted in that and succeed- 
ing legislatures until 1874, when the friends of this movement 
and the advocates of compulsory school attendance joined 
forces and secured the passage of a measure intended to in- 
sure an elementary education for every child in the state. 17 
The law of 1874 18 provided: 

1. That those having control of children between eight and 
fourteen years of age, of proper mental and physical capacity, 
should cause them to attend some public or private school for 
at least fourteen weeks each year, unless regularly taught at 
home in the common school branches for a like period. 

2. That no child under fourteen was to be employed in any 
business whatever unless, during the preceding year, he had 
received instruction as required by law. 

3. That a child on going to work should deliver to the em- 
ployer a certificate of schooling signed by a teacher or a school 
trustee, this to be preserved by the employer and exhibited 
on demand of the proper examining officer. 

4. That the school trustees should, in September and Febru- 
ary of each year, '■ examine into the situation of the children 
employed in all manufacturing establishments in their school 
districts," and report all violations to the chief fiscal officer 
of the city or the supervisor of the town, whose duty it was 
to bring action for the recovery of the fixed penalty, one dollar 
for the first offense, five dollars for each week thereafter, for 
a period not exceeding thirteen weeks. 

5. That text-books should be furnished by the district if 
the parent or guardian was unable to provide them, and so 
stated in writing. 

6. That children should be dealt with as habitual truants 
in case parents were unable to induce them to attend school. 

This law might have been enforced had school trustees and 
others entrusted with its administration set themselves resolute- 
ly to the task. Experience in many states has shown, how- 
ever, that no such general compulsory law has even functioned 



17. Fail-child, Fac. Leg. of N. Y., p. 32. 

18. Laws of New York, 1874, ch. 421. 



NEW YORK 121 

further than to register public opinion. This measure was no 
more effectual than others of its type. After a full decade of 
trial, the proportion of children attending school was actually 
less than before its enactment. 19 Superintendent Andrew S. 
Draper writes of the law: 

"It may as well be said, not only that the 'compulsory 
education act' has not been effectual, but that it is altogether 
doubtful if, in its present shape, it is capable of being made 
so. 20 . . . Moreover," the Superintendent adds, "the schools are 
full. In most of the cities the accommodations are taxed to 
the utmost. Any effectual execution of the law would at once 
create the necessity for additional buildings in every city of 
the state." 21 

The law of 1874, like that of 1853, must be regarded as 
merely marking an historical step in the development of educa- 
tional ideals in the state. It apparently never commanded any 
degree of respect, either on the part of those whom it was in- 
tended to control or on the part of those whose duty it was to 
enforce its provisions. It did not even serve as a foundation 
for later legislation. Indeed, the probability is that the 
presence of this law upon the statute books operated in a 
direction quite opposite from that which was intended. It 
served to quiet, for a time, those who were most concerned in 
the welfare of working children, giving legal assurance that 
at last the state was in position not only to offer educational 
advantages to all, but to insist that parents unwilling to per- 
mit their children to accept the state's offer be compelled to 
do so. Twenty years after its enactment, the highest educa- 
tional officer in the state condemns it by saying, "It has failed 
to accomplish anything except to subject itself to ridicule." 22 

Meanwhile, with the rapid development of manufacturing, 
the evils of child labor were increasing. Manufacturers were 
unwilling to permit the public to be informed as to the con- 
ditions under which children were employed in their establish- 
ments. An authoritative investigation was attempted by the 
Commissioner of Labor Statistics in 1884, following a request 

19. Ept. Spt. Pub. Inst., 1887, p. 5. 

20. Ibid., p. 6. 

21. Ibid. 

22. Ept. Spt. Pub. Inst., 1893, p. 26. 



122 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

to that effect made by the State Trades Assembly. 23 The Com- 
missioner undertook the desired investigation in the belief that 
the law gave him authority to compel unwilling employers to 
answer questions and to submit to visitation, but a ruling of 
the Attorney General to the effect that he could not "safely 
undertake to compel owners or proprietors of manufacturing 
establishments to open them to his personal examination and 
visitation" limited the value of the study undertaken. 24 In 
carrying out the investigation, the questionary method was 
employed, information being obtained from 151 establishments. 
The returns showed 267 children under fourteen years of age, 
20 being under twelve, employed in the factories visited. 25 
Since the United States census of 1880 showed that there were 
in New York State 42,000 manufacturing establishments, 26 the 
actual situation in 1884, if the institutions investigated were 
fairly representative of the remainder, was truly appalling. 
There must have been not far from 75,000 children less than 
fourteen years of age regularly employed in manufacturing 
industries, more than 5,000 of them being less than twelve 
years of age, and about 1,600 less than eleven. No great re- 
liance can be placed on this estimate, but the situation was 
clearly serious. Certain other states were protecting their 
children by laws that now had come to have some virility. 
Public sentiment in New York was demanding equal ad- 
vantages, both in labor restrictions and in educational oppor- 
tunities. The forces interested primarily in industrial con- 
ditions and the directors of public education were coming to 
recognize the close relationship of the causes they represented. 
Yet it was a third force, philanthropy, rather than organized 
labor or education, that took the initiative in the campaign for 
legislation. To Elbridge T. Gerry more than any other single 
individual must be given credit for the law of 1886, which 
formed the basis of New York's effective system for the pro- 
tection of working children. In 1882, as President of the New 
York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, he, 

23. Ept. Bu. Stat, of Lab., 1884, p. 9. 

24. Ibid., p. 20. 

25. Ibid., table, pp. 22-25. 

26. Ibid, p. 10. 



NEW YORK 123 

together with Dr. Abraham Jaeobi, President of the New York 
State Medical Society, drafted a child labor bill which passed 
the Senate, but was assigned a place on the calander of the 
House too late to reach a hearing before adjournment. 27 The 
next year the bill was again brought forward, but by this time 
those financially interested in the employment of children had 
taken warning and were able to offer bitter and successful 
opposition. In 1884 the Workmen's Assembly joined in the 
movement. The statistics presented by the Commissioner of 
Labor were used effectively, and Gerry's bill seemed about to 
pass. Here, however, the opponents of the measure adopted 
an expedient which later became a favorite device in removing 
the sting from threatening legislation. In the House, the 
manufacturing interests succeeded in introducing a worthless 
substitute for the Gerry bill which had passed the Senate, and 
to prevent its enactment into law the friends of the original 
measure were obliged to kill it when it reached the Senate. 28 
The tactics of the manufacturers served to unify the advocates 
of protective legislation. Governor David B. Hill became in- 
terested and promised his support to the Gerry bill. In his 
message to the legislature in 1886 he called attention to the 
efforts that had been made in preceding sessions to "protect 
children of tender years from the demands of selfish and often 
cruel and exacting taskmasters," saying that it was most de- 
sirable that an act be passed regulating the labor of all minors 
and prohibiting the employment of those under fourteen. 29 
Backed by the Governor of the state and by an aroused public 
opinion, a bill practically the same as the original measure of 
previous campaigns was introduced, and after a hard fight with 
the manufacturing interests represented by strong lobbies at 
Albany, it became a law, though not until some concessions 
had been made and some highly desirable features given up. 30 
The chief provisions of this law 31 were as follows: 

1. No minor under eighteen and no woman under twenty- 



27. Fairchild, op. cit., p. 40. 

28. Ibid., p. 43. 

29. Assembly Documents, 1886, No. 2, p. 19. 

30. Fairchild, op. cit., p. 45. 

31. Laws of 1886, ch. 409. 



124 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

one was to be employed more than sixty hours in one week, 
except in making necessary repairs. 

2. The employment in factories of all children under 
thirteen was forbidden; employers were required to keep a 
register of all under sixteen, and to have on file a certificate 
showing age and birthplace of each child between thirteen and 
sixteen, such data being verified by parent, or guardian, or by 
the child himself. 

3. The penalty for "knowingly" employing a child in viola- 
tion of the law was a fine of not less than fifty nor more than 
one hundred dollars, or imprisonment for not less than thirty 
days. 

4. To aid in the enforcement of the law, provision was made 
for the appointment by the governor of a factory inspector 
and one assistant inspector having power to visit and inspect 
manufacturing establishments. 32 

The provisions of the law of 1886 were entirely inadequate 
to met the existing evils of child labor. It carried no educa- 
tional requirements, though the impotence of the compulsory 
attendance law was universally recognized. The mere state- 
ment of parent or child as to age might be accepted, and at 
most this was supported only by affidavit, a kind of evidence 
already discredited in Massachusetts and elsewhere. Then, too, 
the task set the factory inspector and his single assistant, with 
42,000 manufacturing establishments listed in the state, many 
of them employing children, was not a simple one. 33 But a 
beginning had been made, and on this measure was to be built 
an enforceable system. 34 The first notable advance was made 
in 1889, 35 raising the age limit from thirteen to fourteen, re- 
quiring, also, that no child under sixteen might be employed 
in a factory unless able to read and write simple sentences in 
English, and authorizing inspectors to require a child to pro- 

32. The factory inspector was required to report annually to the bureau of 
labor statistics. The following year it was provided that reports be made 
directly to the legislature. Laws of 1887, ch. 462. In 1901, the bureau of 
labor statistics, factory inspection, and the board of mediation and arbi- 
tration were consolidated in the Department of Labor. Laws of 1901, ch. 9. 

33. Under the law of 1886, no establishment was regarded as a factory 
unless at least five persons were employed therein. 

34. Fairchild notes that up to 1904, the child labor law was amended, on 
the average, every other year. In the following decade there were more 
than twenty amendments and laws for the regulation of the employment of 
minors. 

35. Laws of New YorTc, ch. 560. 



NEW YORK 125 

cure a physician's certificate in case he appeared unfit to per- 
form the labor in which he was engaged. The amendment also 
defined a factory as "any place where goods or products are 
manufactured, repaired, cleaned, or sorted, in whole or in 
part," thus removing an element of indefiniteness behind which 
violators had been able to hide ; but, as in the original law, no 
establishment employing fewer than five persons was included 
in the definition. Three years later the provisions of the law 
were made to apply to any mill, factory, or workshop where 
one or more persons were employed. 36 

The most conspicuous weakness in the New York child labor 
law, persisting until its revision in 1903, was its failure to 
reach parents who were willing to misrepresent the age of 
their children in order to secure employment certificates. If 
a child could read and write the most elementary sentences in 
English, working papers could always be secured by a formal 
oath before a notary. As in other states relying upon this 
method of establishing the age of applicants, perjury was com- 
mon. The inspectors were morally certain that large numbers 
of under-age children were at work in factories, but as they 
were usually carefully drilled to sustain, when questioned, the 
sworn statements of their parents, evidence of perjury was 
difficult to obtain. 37 It was believed that the situation might 
be relieved by entrusting the issuance of employment certifi- 
cates to the local health authorities. These officials were in 
possession of such vital statistics as were available, data later 
discovered to be incomplete and of little value, and it was 
hoped that they would be able to check the unlawful employ- 
ment of children. Accordingly, in 1896, an important amend- 
ment 33 laid upon the boards of health full responsibility for 
issuing all working papers, the certificate to include the date 
and place of the child's birth, his description, and a statement 
that the board of health had satisfied itself that the child was 
at least fourteen years of age and was physically fit for the 
work he intended to do. A school attendance clause in harmony 
with the requirements of the compulsory education law was 



36. Laws of 1892, ch. 673. 

37. Bpt. N. Y. Fact. Insp., 18S6, p. 117. 

38. Laws of 1896, eh. 991. 



126 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

included in this measure, a certificate from the school author- 
ities being acceptable as evidence, of attendance, but the board 
of health was expected to satisfy itself by examination that 
the applicant was able to read and write. 39 

At this session of the legislature a law was enacted seeking 
to regulate the employment of children in mercantile establish- 
ments, and its enforcement, singularly enough, was laid upon 
the boards of health. Social workers had long known that 
grave abuses existed in some of the large department stores 
in the cities, but all efforts to correct them had been unsuccess- 
ful. In 1895 a resolution was presented to the Assembly ask- 
ing for an investigation on the grounds that 100,000 women 
in New York City, many of them with families to support, 
were working for sixty cents per day. In accordance with the 
terms of the resolution a committee was created and directed 
to inquire into the situation and report. The work of this 
committee, headed by the Honorable P. W. Reinhardt, Jr., did 
much to arouse public opinion and to make possible the legis- 
lation that followed its report. A more complete study of the 
conditions under which women and children were employed 
than had hitherto been attempted in this state was undertaken. 
Many public hearings were held, more than two hundred and 
fifty witnesses were examined, and extended personal investi- 
gations were conducted. The report of this committee is 
eloquent testimony to the inadequacy of both child labor and 
compulsory education laws thus far enacted. Many young 
children were found to be employed contrary to law, particu- 
larly in the garment trades. "These children were under- 
sized, poorly clad, and dolefully ignorant, unacquainted with 
the simplest rudiments of a common school education, having 
no knowledge of the simplest figures and unable in many cases 
to write their own names in the native or any other 
language." 40 The committee characterized child labor as one 
of the most extensive evils existing in the city, "a constant 
and grave menace to the welfare of its people." The employ- 



39. Still a legal requirement, but probably never seriously undertaken, out- 
side the largest cities. — Employment Certificate System in New York, 
Children's Bureau Pub. No. 17, p. 60. 

40. Bpt. Bernhardt Com., p. 3. 



NEW YORK 127 

merit certificate it regarded as worthless. Parents either had 
no regard for the oath or were too ignorant to understand its 
nature. It was found, also, that certain notaries were making 
a regular practice of taking the affidavits of children clearly 
under the legal age, often charging for such service double 
the legal fee. 41 Those who were interested in the welfare of 
New York children had been aware that conditions were far 
from ideal, but probably few had realized the seriousness of 
the situation. Legislation could no longer be avoided, though 
the forces that had for years successfully resisted adequate 
control were strong enough to secure such modification of the 
measures proposed as to render them relatively ineffective. 
The steps taken to strengthen the employment certificate have 
already been mentioned. 42 More important than this amend- 
ment, at least in principle, was the mercantile law, 43 the pro- 
visions of which were: 

1. No male under sixteen and no female under twenty-one 
was to be employed in any place where goods, wares, or mer- 
chandise was offered for sale, for more than sixty hours per 
week, nor more than ten hours per day, except for the purpose 
of shortening one working day in the week. 

2. Work before seven in the morning and after ten at 
night was forbidden. 

3. It was provided that the law should not be so inter- 
preted as to prevent the employment of any person on any 
Saturday of the year, and that none of the restrictive pro- 
visions should apply during the latter half of December of 
each year. 

4. Of all children under sixteen, age and school attendance 
certificates were required, these to be issued by the local health 
authorities as in case of children employed in factories. 

5. The employment of children under fourteen was for- 
bidden, except in vacation, when those twelve years of age, if 
able to read and write simple sentences in English, might se- 
cure the necessary papers. 

6. The penalty for violation was not less than twenty nor 
more than one hundred dollars for the first offense, between 
forty and two hundred dollars or imprisonment for not over 
sixty days for the second offense, and for succeeding violations 
a larger fine or a longer jail sentence or both fine and im- 

41. Ibid., p. 6. 

42. Supra, p. 125. 

43. Laws of 1896, eh. 384. 



128 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

prisonment were provided. 

7. It was made the duty of the health authorities to en- 
force the measure. Unless prosecution was begun within thirty 
days after the alleged violation of the law, there was no case. 

The method of enforcement of the mercantile law was in it- 
self sufficient to insure the defeat of its purposes. Not only 
were local boards of health to issue working papers to children 
under sixteen, as in the case of employment in factories, but 
they were given entire responsibility for the enforcement of 
the measure. The boards were neither prepared to take over 
this additional duty, lying almost wholly outside the range of 
their normal activities, nor could they be expected to develop 
any real interest in the matter. As a natural consequence, en- 
forcement, as will appear later, was a mere farce until trans- 
ferred in 1908 to the Department of Labor. 44 

Meanwhile, notable progress was made in school legislation. 
State Superintendent Andrew S. Draper believed that the time 
had come to bring New York into line with the movement, 
now national in scope, towards enforceable compulsory attend- 
ance laws. Of the old measure of 1874 nothing could be ex- 
pected. It depended wholly upon local public sentiment for 
its validity, and experience had shown that such sentiment 
was not infrequently adverse to its enforcement. 45 Clearly a 
stronger measure was necessary. At the request of Dr. Draper, 
Superintendent Sherman Williams, of the Glens Falls, New 
York, schools, investigated the subject of compulsory school 
attendance in the state. He found conditions extremely un- 
satisfactory, and in his report submitted on December second, 
1887, he urged decisive action. 46 A bill was drawn up em- 
bodying his recommendations, and in 1889 it was passed by 
the legislature, only to meet the disapproval of Governor David 
B. Hill, largely because of his objections to certain provisions 
regarding a state school for incorrigibles. 47 The bill had been 
opposed, also, by those interested in parochial schools. It had 
originally provided that teachers in such schools should take 



44. Laws of 1908, ch. 520. 

45. Ept. Supt. Pub. Inst., 1904, p. 96. 

46. Ibid. 

47. Ibid., 1890, appendix, p. 143. 



NEW YORK 129 

the regular examinations as required of those who taught in 
the public schools. This was sufficient to gain the hostility 
of a certain element, who feared that the bill threatened to 
interfere with schools under church and private control. 48 The 
Governor was not opposed to the principle of compulsory- 
education, and in 1892 he urged the passage of a "carefully 
guarded" law. The public school superintendents, the State 
Teachers' Association, and the forces backing the child labor 
law aligned themselves with the movement, 49 and in 1894, just 
twenty years after the first so-called compulsory attendance 
law was passed, the second measure was enacted. This second 
law was not permitted to lie unused upon the statute books, 
but its enforcement was undertaken to such effect that after 
fourteen years of operation, strengthened meantime by various 
amendments, the state superintendent could describe it as "by 
far the best law upon this subject to be found in any of the 
states." 50 

The essential features of the law of 1894 were: 

1. All children between "eight and twelve years of age were 
to attend some school for the full session. 

2. Those between twelve and sixteen were to attend for 
the entire session unless regularly employed. 

3. Those between twelve and fourteen were to attend for 
at least eighty days. 

4. It was made a misdemeanor to employ a child between 
eight and twelve years of age during any part of the school 
session, or to employ one between twelve and fourteen unless 
he presented a certificate signed by the superintendent of 
schools or by some other properly designated officer. 

5. Parents or guardians were required to keep their children 
in school, subject to a penalty of not more than five dollars 
for the first offense, and not more than fifty dollars or not to 
exceed thirty days in jail, or both fine and imprisonment Jior 
each subsequent offense, but the penalty did not apply if those 
in charge of children notified the school authorities of their 
inability to cause them to attend. 

6. The appointment of local truant officers was made obli- 
gatory except in the rural communities. 



48. Ibid., p. 147. Note antagonisms of parochial and private schools at this 
time to the Bennet Law in Wisconsin, seq., pp. 212f . 

49. Ibid., 1893, appendix, p. 139. 

50. Ept. N. Y. Ed. Dept., 1908, p. 7. 



130 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

7. The state superintendent was given authority to with- 
hold one-half the public school funds from any district failing 
to carry out the provisions of the law. He was also authorized 
to appoint an assistant to inquire into the extent to which the 
compulsory measure was enforced. 

It is readily seen that the close relationship which should 
exist between compulsory school attendance and compulsory 
exclusion from labor was not fully appreciated by those re- 
sponsible for this legislation. An easy method was left, also, 
for parents to escape responsibility for the attendance of their 
children. But vigorous enforcement was now possible, due in 
part to a better public attitude, in part to a degree, however 
slight, of central authority. Apparently some 20,000 children 
were brought into school almost at once, 51 this number not 
including any illegally at work, but representing those who 
had been out of school because of truancy or through the 
neglect of parents. 52 

Within a year the process of strengthening the law by 
amendment was begun. In 1895 it was made the duty of the 
State Superintendent of Public Instruction to cause a census 
to be taken biennially in all cities of 10,000 population and 
upward. Provision was made for gathering such data as would 
give definite information as to the number of children in school, 
as well as the number absent without good cause or employed. 
Provision was also made for two additional attendance officers 
or assistants who, representing the department of public in- 
struction, were to spend their time among the schools investi- 
gating the extent to which the attendance law was enforced. 53 
These assistants, after visiting most of the cities in the state, 
reported that with one or two exceptions, the law was being 
"vigorously enforced, with the exercise of good judgment and 
discretion." 54 Apparently these state officials and the local 
truant officers gave no attention to children who were illegally 
employed, seeking only to return to school the idlers of com- 
pulsory attendance age. 55 Experience revealed weaknesses in 



51. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., 1896, p. 1046. 

52. Ibid., p. 1048. 

53. Laws of 1895, ch. 550. 

54. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., 1896, p. 1045. 

55. Ibid., p. 1048. 



NEW YORK 131 

the law and the Superintendent of Public Instruction began 
to urge further amendments, recommending that the biennial 
census be extended to the entire state, that attendance officers 
be required in the common school districts, and that parents 
claiming exemption from the penalty of the law on the grounds 
of inability to cause their children to attend school be required 
to present adequate proof of the truth of their contention. In 
1896 the second and third recommendations were embodied in 
the law. 

The year 1903 was an important one in the history of 
children's legislation in New York. Educational and labor 
laws were strengthened and brought into harmony, and new 
forces began to manifest themselves in greater publicity and 
in campaigns of education. The laws up to this time had been 
recognized as inadequate, and in some of their provisions ex- 
ceedingly difficult of enforcement. The mercantile law had not 
been regarded seriously, and it had remained largely in- 
operative. Yet the preceding decade had been far from un- 
fruitful; not only had legislative standards been advanced 
against sharp opposition, but significant results had been 
achieved in enforcement. More than 130,000 children had been 
brought into school, 74,911 truants had been arrested by truant 
officers, and 2206 persons in parental relations had been pro- 
secuted for neglect of their duty. 56 Just what proportion of 
these prosecutions had resulted in convictions the published 
reports of the superintendent do not indicate. It appears that 
the general practice was to impose a small fine, then suspend 
execution of the sentence, the parent agreeing to comply with 
the law. 57 Employers violating the labor laws were still treat- 
ed very tenderly by inspectors and prosecuting officers, as 
evidenced by the record of the last three years of this decade : 58 

1901 1902 1903 
Violations of the child labor laws....33,766 49,538 50 572 

Convictions 70 7 39 

Fines $2,010 $215 $1,060 

56. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., 1904, pp. 24f. 

57. Ibid., 1896, p. 1051. 

58. Bpt. N. Y. Child Lab. Com. to Gov. Biggins, 1905, p. 19 Bpt N Y 
Dpt. of Labor, 1902, Vol. I, pp. 1, 16, III, 10. *'_■'.' 



132 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

It has been observed that no really effective legislation in 
behalf of working children was possible until organized labor 
was able to enlist the support of political parties. 59 It might 
as truly be said that political forces reach an early limit in 
their usefulness in the administration of the laws they enact. 
Philanthropic agencies had been an important factor in secur- 
ing the protective legislation thus far written into the statutes, 
but they had not been particularly successful in stimulating 
civic forces to discharge their administrative duties effectively. 
There was a painful lack of organization which had enabled 
vested interests not only to secure the introduction of un- 
enforceable provisions in the proposed bills, but to render ad- 
ministration difficult through cumbersome or unusual methods. 
But the decade opening with 1903 was to witness a decided 
change in organization. Laws "with teeth in them" were to 
be enacted, enforcement was to be stimulated, and employers 
themselves were to become, to an appreciable extent, support- 
ers of the very principles they had so long successfully op- 
posed. In this new program, the New York Child Labor Com- 
mittee, established in 1902, was the organizing and directing 
force. The committee was created in response to a very defi- 
nite need. In the summer of 1902 a sub-committee of the 
Neighborhood Workers' Association of New York City under- 
took an inquiry into the condition of child workers in the city, 
employing Miss Helen Marot for the purpose. The situation, 
apparently not much improved since the Reinhardt report in 
1896, seemed to warrant a vigorous campaign for legislation; 
a permanent child labor committee was formed and a paid 
secretary, Mr. Fred S. Hall, employed. 60 The ensuing cam- 



59. Fairchild, Fac. Leg. in N. Y., p. 29. 

60. This organization has proved such an effective educational agency, such 
a potent factor in securing legislation and in encouraging its enforcement, 
that a statement of its aims as set out in its certificate of incorporation is 
presented, as follows: 

1. To investigate and report the facts concerning child labor in the state 
of New York. 

2. To raise the standard of parental responsibility with respect to the 
employment of children. 

3. To "assist in protecting children by suitable legislation against prema- 
ture or otherwise injurious employment, and thus to aid in securing for 
them an opportunity for elementary education and physical development 
sufficient for the demands of citizenship and the requirements of indus- 
trial efficiency. 



NEW YORK 133 

paign, directed by Mr. Hall and Mr. Robert Hunter, chairman 
of the committee, and participated in by some of the best in- 
formed and most experienced child- welfare workers in the 
United States, was so successful as to give New York un- 
questioned leadership for a time in legislation for the pro- 
tection of children. Since the day it entered the field, the 
Child Labor Committee has remained not only a leader in the 
constant fight for new and steadily advancing legislation, but 
it has assisted in securing more efficient officials and has care- 
fully guarded against attempts of employers to clog the legal 
machinery by means of unworkable measures. 

It is safe to say that the legislative campaign of 1903 was 
unexpectedly successful. The necessity for better laws and 
more adequate means of enforcement was, to be sure, generally 
recognized. Excellent publicity was secured through the skill- 
ful management of the new Child Labor Committee. The press 
was moved to demand harmony between the labor and com- 
pulsory education law. 61 Appeal was made to state pride, and 
the relatively backward position of New York was pointed 
out. 62 Organized labor, having secured independent data 
showing the evil effects of the labor of children, threw its 
strength into the fight. 63 Yet the man who introduced most 
of the child labor bills that later became law had little hope 
that they would pass. A letter written by him to the chair- 
man of the New York Child Labor Committee at the close of 
the session is of interest, showing not only the attitude of the 
friends of the proposed measures, but giving a contemporary 
opinion of the efficiency of the organization backing it. "At 
the outset," he writes, "I found it to be the almost universal 
opinion held by members of the Legislature that the legislation 
was too advanced, and would never be enacted into law. That 
the fortunate contrary result was obtained was due solely to 
the magnificent campaign waged by you. So thoroughly was 

4. To aid in promoting the enforcement of laws relating to child labor. 

5. To form auxiliary associations for the purpose of accomplishing these 
things. — From A Ten Years' War Against Child Labor in New York 
State. 

61. E. g., New York Mail and Express, Jan. 10, 1903, editorial. 

62. New York Commercial Advertiser, Jan. 13, 1903, editorial. 

63. Bpt. of Central Federated Union, 1903. 



134 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

the work done that all opposition was silenced through fear 
of opposing the intelligent public opinion that had been 
aroused." 64 

The fight for and against the legislation of 1903 centered 
about the requirements for working papers, more particularly 
the documentary proof of age. The outstanding features of 
the child labor law as enacted, were the following. 65 

1. No child under fourteen could be employed in any fac- 
tory, and none under sixteen could be so employed without 
a certificate regularly issued by the Commissioner of Health 
or the executive officer of the board or department of health 
of the city, town, or village in which employment was sought. 

2. The applicant was required to submit: a. His school 
record showing that he had attended a public school or its 
equivalent for at least 130 days during the year preceding his 
fourteenth birthday, that he had received instruction in the 
common branches, and that he was able to read and write 
simple sentences in English, b. Documentary proof of age in 
the form of an attested transcript of a certificate of birth, cer- 
tificate of baptism, or other religious record, or in case such 
evidence was not available, and only then, an affidavit of par- 
ent or guardian to the effect that the applicant was fourteen 
years of age. The affidavit was made before the officer issuing 
the certificate, and no fee was permitted. 

3. The issuing officer was required to examine the child as 
to his ability to read and write. Before issuing the certificate 
he was also to satisfy himself that the applicant was physically 
fit to perform the labor proposed; in doubtful cases, the ques- 
tion of physical fitness was to be determined by a physician 
of the board of health. 

Now for the first time the requirements of the child labor 
laws and the compulsory attendance law were in harmony. 
Heretofore, there had been no adequate basis for cooperation 
between the boards of education throughout the state and the 
boards of health charged with the duty of issuing working 
papers. While close cooperation remains to this day a thing 
to be desired rather than an accomplished fact, the laws them- 
selves were no longer in conflict. New York was in advance 
of any other state in the Union at the time in requiring of the 



64. Hon. E. E. Finch, quoted in letter by Kobert Hunter, May 25, 1903. 
Files N. Y. Child Labor Com. 

65. Laws of New Yorlc, 1903, ch. 184. It is interesting to compare this law 
with that of 1886, ch. 409. Discussion supra, pp. 123f. 



NEW YORK 135 

working child not only evidence of a minimum age, but a 
definite school-attendance record. Besides these data, the law 
required that the child possess a certain ability to read and 
write as exhibited in an examination to be given by the officials 
issuing working papers. It must be admitted that this pro- 
vision was not generally enforced, but it proved extremely use- 
ful, where employed, in checking the certificates of attendance 
issued by school authorities, documents which, singularly 
enough, were frequently found unreliable. 66 

Lest the following somewhat critical pages give the im- 
pression that the legislation of 1903 was so poorly enforced as 
to prove of little value, it should be said that almost immediate- 
ly the officials in the departments of Labor and Education be- 
gan to work in cooperation, 67 and with considerable effective- 
ness. The whole number of parents prosecuted in the decade 
preceding 1903 had been 2206; more than half that number 
were proceeded against in 1904 alone. 68 In some of the cities 
that had been rather notorious offenders against both the labor 
and the attendance law there was an activity which resulted in 
greatly increased attendance, 69 while in the state at large the 
percentage of attendance upon enrollment in all schools, public 
and private, rose from 71 per cent in 1902 to 76.1 per cent in 
1905. 70 Indeed, inadequate as some of this legislation soon 
proved to be, its real importance can scarcely be exaggerated. 
Of that portion known as "The Newsboys' Law," Jacob Riis, 
whose judgment cannot be questioned, and whose counsel was 
sought concerning the measure, said, "If it was the last service 
I could render New York, I could think of nothing of greater 
importance." 71 

Almost at once it became evident that the battle in behalf 
of children had not been completely won in the legislative 
campaign of 1903. Industrial habits of long standing are not 
easily broken. Parents and employers found methods of 



66. Seq. p. 143f . 

67. Ept. N. Y. Dpt. of Ed., 1906, p. 557. 

68. Bpt. N. Y. Dpt. of Ed., 1905, p. 74. 

69. Albany Times-Union, Dec. 3, 1903. 

70. Bpt. N. Y. Dpt. of Ed., 1906, p. 7. 

71. Letter approving the proposed bill; files N. Y. Child Labor Com., 1903. 



136 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

escaping the penalties of the law, and young children continued 
to turn to the factory and shop instead of the school. The 
situation Avas particularly acute in New York City because of 
the exceptional conditions prevailing there, but even "up 
state" boards of health and educational authorities often fell 
far short of doing their full duty in the administration of the 
laws. 72 Fortunately the constitutionality of the documentary 
requirements for proof of age was settled early in the struggle 
for enforcement. 73 Magistrates would not apply the law strict- 
ly, however, not infrequently making it extremely uncomfort- 
able for the officer bringing a case against an offending parent. 
Apparently they did not believe the law to be a wise one; 
they therefore refused to apply it. The city superintendent 
of schools had taken occasion to criticise the judges for failure 
to fine parents for keeping their children out of school to 
work, and in correspondence relative to the matter, one of the 
magistrates wrote, " ... I have no hesitation in stating that 
it would have to be a very aggravated case before I should 
conclude to fine a poor parent five dollars." 74 

The effect of this attitude on the part of the courts brought 
the law into contempt and made its enforcement little more 
than a farce. 75 A parent haled before the court for failure to 
comply with the compulsory law might swear that the child 
was of legal age and the judge would promptly dismiss the 
case. 76 An employer reported for violation of the labor law 
stood less than one chance in a thousand of being compelled 
to suffer the legal penalty. 77 While this state of affairs must 
be attributed directly to indifferent, short-sighted, or corrupt 
officials, it must be borne in mind that every state seriously 
attempting to control the labor of children has experienced a 
similar period of conflict. Administrative and judicial officers 



72. Rpt. of inspection of 24 cities, 1904, by J. K. Paulding. In files of 
N. Y. Child Labor Committee. 

73. New York City vs. Chelsea Jute Mills, March, 1904. 

74. Letter from Judge Lorenzo Zeller, Jan. 8, 1904; files N. Y. Ch. Lab. 
Com. 

75. Letter District Supt. Stewart, Oct. 3, 1905 ; files N. Y. Child Lab. Com. 

76. Rpt. of J. K. Paulding, Apr. 17, 1905 ; files N. Y. Child Labor Com. 

77. In 1903, 50,572 violations were reported out of which there were 39 
convictions. Supra, p. 131. 



NEW YORK 137 

have ever hesitated to come between the parent and his child. 
The tradition of parental right over his offspring has been ex- 
ceedingly persistent and has yielded only gradually to the 
conception of social welfare. In particular, courts have hesitat- 
ed to lay a fine upon a parent already impoverished, because 
he permitted his child to add to the family income. Slowly, 
and even as yet only partially, society has invented methods 
of relieving the necessitous poor, so as to enable children to 
delay entrance upon productive employment and yet retain 
a full measure of self respect and independence. 78 It was be- 
lieved that the lack of zeal on the part of local officials en- 
trusted with the administration of the labor laws had its origin 
in the head of the Department of Labor, so at the close of 
Governor OdelPs administration in 1904, the philanthropic 
forces interested in the welfare of children opened a determined 
fight against the reappointment of John McMackin as State 
Commissioner of Labor. In a report on the situation made to 
the governor elect, Frank W. Higgins, by the New York Child 
Labor Committee, Mr. McMackin was subjected to scathing 
criticism. It was held that the manufacturers were becoming 
more and more lawless every year; 79 that though more than 
fifty thousand cases of violation of the child labor laws had 
been reported in a single year, there had been but a few pro- 
secutions with fewer than two score convictions ; that the Com- 
missioner of Labor was vested with sufficient authority to 
cause the laws to be enforced; that in this he had manifestly 
failed and had forfeited all right to further official consider- 
ation. Several influential papers aligned themselves with the 
Committee, and in their editorials reveal something of the sit- 
uation. The following are illustrative: 

"The New York law is now regarded as model legislation 
on this subject, (child labor), in some respects superior to that 
of Massachusetts. So far, however, have some of its provisions 
been from enforcement that the facts are as bad as they are 



78. In 1905 the New York Child Labor Committee provided for a system of 
scholarships whereby a child whose labor was necessary for the adequate 
support of the family might receive a sum approximately equal to his 
normal weekly wage. Cases were carefully investigated, and it was found 
that the real need was relatively slight. 

79. Ept. N. T. C. L. Com., 1905, p. 19. 



138 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

in some of those Southern States about which such a protest 
has been raised. . . . Children of four and five have been allowed 
to work under McMackin and one of six has been found work- 
ing until nine o'clock at night. In one factory alone there 
were 300 children under fourteen, and in the busy season this 
factory is open until two or three o'clock in the morning." 80 

In the same tenor from the pen of the editor of the New 
York World: 

"Governor Higgins can hardly ignore the volume of testi- 
mony offered as to the farcical non-enforcement of the child 
labor laws in this State. 

"The evil is manifest. When tiny children are kept all day 
in rural canning works, when toilers of ten years, through per- 
jury and fraud, are 'sweated' in city tailor shops and fac- 
tories, when breaches of the law are not punished, even though 
called to the attention of the inspectors, not only do the 
children themselves become stunted in body and dwarfed in 
mind, but an insidious and dangerous condition is set up to 
lower the earnings of heads of families." 81 

And from the Globe on the same date: 

"It appears that of the 54,000 cases of infractions of the 
child labor law reported to State Labor Commissioner Mc- 
Mackin last year, prosecutions were begun in but thirteen. 
This extraordinary discrepancy between offense and attempts 
at punishment strongly suggests that the charges brought 
against Mr. McMackin by the Child Labor Commission are 
true, and that the Commission's demand for his removal from 
office is justified." 82 

The State Labor Commissioner sought to justify his leniency 
in applying the laws of 1903 on the ground that he wished to 
give the manufacturers opportunity to become acquainted with 
them. 83 But since the essential principles of this legislation 
had been on the statute books since 1886, not much weight 
was to be attached to the argument, and the Child Labor Com- 
mittee came off victorious in its first big fight against what 
appeared to be political manipulation of measures intended to 
protect children, Mr. P. T. Sherman being made Commissioner 
of Labor. 



80. Collier's Weekly, Dec. 24, 1904, editorial. 

81. New Yorlc World, Jan. 9, 1905, editorial. 

82. Neio York Globe, Jan. 9, 1905, editorial. 

83. N. Y. World, Jan. 17, 1905. 



NEW YORK 139 

Very naturally, the provisions of the child labor law re- 
quiring documentary evidence in proof of age produced some 
hardship. Frequently it was impossible for a child's par- 
ents to present the necessary papers, and the employment 
certificate was refused. 84 The law provided that in such cases 
the applicant should remain in school until sixteen, but an 
investigation made in New York City showed that when once 
given his certificate of attendance the applicant for working 
papers received scant attention from the school authorities. 
If refused the coveted papers by the Board of Health, he would 
enter some employment not requiring the certificate, then 
presently find his way into a factory or store, there to remain, 
unless discovered by an inspector. 85 In event of discovery, the 
usual penalty was rarely more severe than temporary loss of 
position, magistrates still being reluctant to levy a fine either 
upon parent or employer. 86 

It was found also that the rather limited range of evidence 
of age admitted by the law of 1903 was working a genuine 
hardship upon many children, some of them natives of the 
state who, due to defective and inadequate vital records, were 
unable to procure the required documents. The law was, 
therefore, amended in 1905, authorizing boards of health to 
accept ''other documentary evidence" in addition to the cer- 
tificate of birth or religious record. 87 At the same session the 
compulsory attendance law was so amended as to give truant 
officers the right to enter factories or other establishments 
where children were employed, to examine certificates, and 
to determine whether or not the conditions of the law had 
been met. 88 Interference with such an officer was made a 
misdemeanor. 

The administration of the child labor laws continued to offer 



84. Between 1903 and 1906 an average of 2,200 children yearly, all fourteen 
years of age, were refused working papers because of inability to produce 
the proper documents. Bpt. of Sec. Geo. A. Mall, N. Y. C. L. Com., Oct., 
1906. 

85. IUd. 

86. This state of affairs continued until 1907, when children between four- 
teen and sixteen were required to secure the employment certificate before 
leaving school. 

87. Laws of N. Y., 1905, ch. 518. 

88. Laws of N. T., 1905, ch. 311. 



140 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

very real difficulties. Boards of health in many of the towns 
and cities frequently regarded their duties with indifference. 
In Manhattan and Brooklyn the Child Labor Committee was 
able to stimulate the health officers and to give very practical 
assistance by maintaining at the working paper offices salaried 
agents, interested social workers who rendered friendly aid 
of an expert character, and who were often able to advise 
applicants for employment certificates as to methods of pro- 
cedure in securing proper evidences of age. But "up state," 
Avhere the aid and supervision of such experts was wholly lack- 
ing, officials often became exceedingly lax in their methods. 
At this time the Department of Labor had no supervisory 
authority over the granting of employment certificates. More- 
over, the Commissioner and his inspectors were primarily con- 
cerned in dealing with those who were employing children to 
whom no papers of any kind had been issued. 89 

Every advance, however, won new support and made fur- 
ther progress possible. The legislators of 1907 took action for 
which the labor organizations had been struggling for many 
years, limiting to eight hours the working day of factory em- 
ployees under sixteen years of age. 90 Other legislation of 
particular importance to working children was the following: 

Children under sixteen applying for working papers were 
required to remain in school until such papers had been 
granted. 91 

In cities of the first class, the certificate of an approved 
physician was admitted as final proof of age in case other 
documentary evidence was lacking. 92 

-School attendance officers were given joint power with the 
police in enforcing the newsboys' law, and the scope of this 
measure was considerably extended. 93 

The following year, measures of still greater importance 
from the standpoint of enforcement were enacted; the in- 
spection of mercantile establishments in the three cities of the 



89. Letter of Commissioner Sherman, Oct. 23, 1905; files N. Y. C. L. Com. 

90. Laws of 1907, ch. 507. 

91. Ibid., ch. 585. 

92. IUd., ch. 291. 

93. Ibid., ch. 588. 

94. New York, Buffalo, and Rochester. 



NEW YORK 141 

first class 94 was transferred from local health authorities, at 
whose hands the exploiters of child labor had not suffered, to 
the State Department of Labor; 95 secondly, in these cities per- 
manent school census boards were established. 96 It is not easy 
to overemphasize the importance of this advance in effective 
administration. Its far-reaching effect was anticipated, and 
the action was actively opposed by the merchants and manu- 
facturers through strong lobbies at Albany. 97 

The rapid advance in legislative standards, while extremely 
gratifying to the philanthropic agencies backing the movement, 
carried a certain disadvantage. Those responsible for the en- 
forcement of the laws found it difficult to keep up with chang- 
ing standards. No sooner did they become accustomed to 
the requirements fixed by legislative enactment than an amend- 
ment would require revision of method, producing a degree 
of confusion among officials extending, no doubt, to the par- 
ents and children concerned. 

During this period the records of the Education Depart- 
ment show a steady gain in the rate of school attendance, yet 
it was recognized that many children were not in school at all, 
while others were very irregular in attendance. 98 The school 
authorities felt constantly the forces drawing children into 
productive employments. The Commissioner of Education 
says: "On the one side, the manufacturer, the merchant, the 
farmer, seem as never before in our history bent on employ- 
ing cheap labor, or that which seems cheap ; — on the other hand 
is the parent who apparently places the dollar above the child 
and in whose mind is firmly entrenched the old common law 
idea — that the parent is the absolute owner of his child until 
it is of age." 99 

The Department complained that the method of appointing 
attendance officers by the town boards throughout the state 
was anything but satisfactory, many of these officials being 
"ineffective and worthless." Better material could not be 

95. Laws of 1908, ch. 520. Passed at extra session. 

96. Ibid., ch. 249. 

97. Geo. A. Hall, in Charities and Commons, July 20, 1907, p. 434. 

98. Bpt. Ed. Dpt., 1907, p. 7. 

99. Ibid., p. 10. 



142 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

secured "because an intelligent and courageous man will not 
undertake the delicate work of enforcing the law for a mere 
pittance of from ten to twenty-five dollars per year, which is 
usually the amount paid by town boards." 100 

The judges, in many cases, remained superior to the law. 101 
The attendance officers had learned to bring cases before Man- 
hattan magistrates only as a last resort, knowing that the pro- 
ceedings would be likely to end in the discharge of the accused 
and, perhaps, in the reprimand of the officer, 102 while in many 
other parts of the state there was equal reluctance to convict. 103 
But perhaps the most discouraging element in the situation at 
this time was the attitude of indifference assumed by a number 
of the cities of the state. With hundreds of children out of 
school, many of them illegally employed, not a single arrest 
would be made, 104 while in forty-five other cities a total of 
1063 delinquent parents were arrested, of whom only 263, or 



100. Ibid. 

101. One judge refused to consider the case of a boy less than fourteen 
found at work because in his opinion any boy who had reached the required 
grade in school should be allowed to go to work regardless of his age. Of 
55 cases brought before seven magistrates, 29 coming before six of these 
officials netted four fines ; the remaining 26, of precisely the same character, 
were brought before Judge House, recently chosen to the bench and deter- 
mined to back the school authorities, and all but two resulted in convictions. 
Unpublished report of investigation made in 1907 by Eugene E. Agger; 
files N. Y. C. L. Com. 

102. Out of 912 cases brought in the school year 1908-09 against those in 
parental relations for violation of the attendance law in New York City, 
235 of the accused were fined, 15 were imprisoned, while 653, or 71% per 
cent, were discharged. In the same year, 2,504 violations of the newsboys' 
law were reported, 239 arrests were made, 104 of those arrested were dis- 
charged, 9 were fined, 12 were committed to institutions, 114 were given 
suspended sentences. New YorTc Globe, Nov. 13, 1909; from Annual Bpt. 
Pres. Winthrop, City Board of Education. 

103. The Commissioner of Education says: "It has been almost impossible 
for school boards and superintendents in certain cities to get police magis- 
trates to punish delinquent parents — even when the same offender has been 
repeatedly arraigned for violation of the law." He cites one city in which 
98 parents were arrested in a space of three months, with abundant evidence 
to establish their guilt. Two of them were fined one dollar each ; the others 
were dismissed. Bpt. Ed. Dpt., 1908, p. 8. See also Bpt. Dpt. of Labor, 
1911, Bureau of Merc. Inspection, p. 429. 

104. Bpt. Ed. Dpt., 1908, p. 9. The cities listed as reporting no arrests or 
prosecutions for the violation of the attendance laws are as follows : Albany, 
Auburn, Binghamton, Corning, Cortland, Elmira, Gloversville, Hornell, 
Ithaca, Jamestown, Johnstown, Little Falls, Lockport, Middleton, New- 
burgh, Ogdensburg, Olean, Oneida, Plattsburg, Poughkeepsie, Rensselaer, 
Rome, Syracuse, Watertown. 



NEW YORK 143 

slightly more than twenty-five per cent, were fined, and 36 were 
given jail sentences. 105 About this time New York City was 
receiving unwelcome publicity because of inadequate enforce- 
ment of state and municipal laws, but the records show that 
in regard to the protection and education of children her 
record was far better than that reported for the cities in the 
rest of the state, about seventy-two per cent of all convictions 
for the violation of the attendance and child labor laws being 
in New York City alone. 106 

It should be recognized clearly that no single group, as public 
officials, employers, or short-sighted parents, may be held re- 
sponsible for the non-enforcement of these laws, theoretically 
approved almost everywhere, yet so frequently ignored. Even 
teachers, principals, and superintendents were slow in yielding 
full cooperation in carrying out the measures. For example, 
in 1908 it was discovered that many children in New York 
City were at work on certificates of schooling alone. 107 These 
children had claimed their record of attendance, had been per- 
mitted to leave school, but had been held up by the Board of 
Health because of inability to meet some one of the require- 
ments imposed by the law. 108 Here the principals were clearly 
at fault, as under the law of 1907 no child under sixteen might 
be permitted to leave school until his working papers were 
completed. A reasonable degree of cooperation between the 
schools and the health officials would, of course, have resulted 
in the return of most or all of these children to school. 

Singularly enough, the Board of Health was constantly 
obliged to refuse working papers to children on the ground of 
illiteracy, though regularly certified by principals as having 
met the schooling requirements. Just why the school author- 
ities should have continued to certify children who were al- 
most entirely illiterate has never been explained. In 1906, 



105. Ibid. 

106. Bpt. Ed. Dpt., 1909, p. 30. 

107. In the following pages rather extended reference will be made to law 
enforcement in New York City. This is primarily because material is 
accessible here, while up state, except in a few instances, it is either un- 
reliable or lacking. This city is hardly typical, as manifestly more vigorous 
enforcement was attempted than in other parts of the state. 

108. Letter, Miss Jeanie V. Minor, agent of N. Y. C. L. Com.; Sept. 4, 
1908 ; files N. Y. C. L. Com. 



144 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

children to the number of 479, regularly certified by principals, 
were found unable to pass the reading and writing tests, 
usually simple sentences dictated from the fourth Reader. The 
number of failures continued for several years to be relatively 
large, being 462 in 1908, 376 in 1910, 239 in 1912, falling to 
79 in 1915. A few hundred failures out of several thousand 
applicants for working papers may seem trifling, but that there 
should be a single one is a reflection upon those in charge of 
issuing the school record. 109 That careless certification of 
children was quite general among the schools is evidenced by 
an analysis of the reports for the year ending June 30, 1909, 
which shows that applicants from 129 public schools and 32 
parochial schools of Manhattan were refused working papers 
on demonstrated inability to read and write. 110 Further light 
is thrown upon the situation by a circular letter from Superin- 
tendent William H. Maxwell, dated June 15, 1908, addressed 
to "Principals of all Public and Other Schools," and running 
in part as follows: 

"Many principals have issued to children during the year 
school record certificates, when such children did not possess 
the required scholarship. Others have knowingly permitted 
children to apply for an employment certificate at the office of 
the Board of Health with only an affidavit of a parent as 
evidence of the date of birth." 111 

The correspondence of Associate Superintendent Edward B. 
Shallow with the Secretary of the New York Child Labor 
Committee and with others interested in law enforcement 
locates more specifically the responsibility for failure. Charged 
with the administration of the attendance laws, he was in closer 
touch with the various aspects of the city's problems of the 
working child than was any other single official. He found it 
necessary, he said, to reprove some of the oldest and best 
known principals for failure to observe the regulations relative 
to working papers. 112 Some had apparently found it im- 



109. The number of failures dropped to two figures in 1914, due, no doubt, 
to the legislation of 1913 requiring that applicants for working papers must 
have completed the first six years of the elementary school course. Laws of 
New York, 1913, ch. 144. 

110. Files, N. Y. C. L. Com. 

111. Ibid. 

112. Letter, Oct. 16, 1908 ; files N. Y. C. L. Com. 



NEW YORK 145 

possible to adjust themselves to the changes in the laws or 
even to follow simple directions prepared for their guidance. 
Certain of them were still following requirements displaced by 
the amendments of 1903. 113 In a burst of impatience, Mr. 
Shallow writes, ' ' Would that someone might point out the way 
to me, to make all these people understand ordinary English 
directions!" 114 

Besides making clear the shortcomings of the teaching forces 
in carrying out the provisions of the law, Mr. Shallow shoM'S 
in his correspondence the continued failure of the newsboys' 
law, commended so highly in 1903 by Jacob Riis. As late as 
1909 he reported a case in which certain newsboys had been 
arrested for violating this law and had entered pleas of guilty. 
The magistrate accepted the pleas, promptly suspended 
sentences, and criticized the officer in the presence of the boys, 
saying he had no right to make the arrests. 115 In another 
letter, reporting the difficulties in handling these cases, Mr. 
Shallow noted that he had but four men for this particular 
service, and these were obliged to work in pairs, "because 
when a man working alone attempts to arrest a persistent 
violator, he is usually surrounded by a mob and in more than 
one instance, the boy has been taken away from the officer by 
the unruly crowd." 116 

The situation in this unsettled period was still further com- 
plicated by the lack of cooperation between the school and 
labor officials. The factory inspectors, on finding children 
illegally employed, would promptly cause their discharge. It 
was no part of their duties to see that these children returned 
to school, and few of them would do so voluntarily. They 
would either loaf about the streets or secure employment else- 
where, safe in the latter case until discovered by an inspector, 
perhaps six months or a year later. In 1909 it had been agreed 
that immediately on discharge of a child by the labor author- 
ities, the chief attendance officer should be notified. The De- 
partment of Labor failed to carry out the terms of the agree- 



113. Letter, June 1, 1909; files N. Y. C. L. Com. 

114. Ibid. 

115. Letter, Oct. 25, 1909 ; files N. Y. C. L. Com. 

116. Letter, Jan. 28, 1909 ; files N. Y. C. L. Com. 



146 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

ment, but instead permitted the names of discharged children 
to accumulate for a month, sending them to the attendance 
officers in lots of two or three hundred, too late to be of great 
value in bringing the children back to school. 117 

Notwithstanding the obstacles in the way of complete en- 
forcement of the laws for the protection of children, progress 
was continuous. The years between 1909 and 1913 were dis- 
tinctly years of consolidation. Legislative changes were not 
so frequent as in the periods immediately preceding and 
following, those made being intended to facilitate enforcement 
of laws already in operation. During this period the number 
of children between fourteen and sixteen employed in factories 
increased by about eighty per cent; the percentage of illegal 
employment, so far as ascertained, remained practically the 
same, slightly less than eight per cent. 118 In 1910, when the 
Department of Labor took over the inspection of mercantile 
establishments in first class cities, more than half the children 
found at work were employed contrary to law. In 1913, with 
an increase of about eleven per cent in the number employed, 
there had been a reduction of approximately an equal per cent 
in illegal employment. 119 Progress had also been made in en- 
forcing the attendance law. In both country and city, parents 
were beginning to realize that the law could be enforced. In 
1911 legislative authority had been gained for a more adequate 
system of supervision in districts outside of cities. District 
superintendents were now stimulated and aided by thirteen 
inspectors from the State Department. These inspectors brought 
the Department into close touch with every part of the state, 
and under the direction of the chief of the attendance division, 
Honorable James D. Sullivan, the attendance laws were really 
functioning. Funds were frequently withheld from districts 
refusing to cooperate, 120 and prosecutions now resulted in con- 



117. Letter, Mr. Shallow to Mr. Hall, Dec. 22, 1910; files N. Y. C. L. Com. 

118. Bpt. N. Y. Com. of Lab., 1913, pp. 41-42. 18,764 children between 14 
and 16 were employed in factories in 1913. 

119. Ibid., p. 85. 

120. Bpt. Ed. Bpt., 1908, p. 12; 1912, p. 334; 1913, p. 300. While a few 
districts are thus penalized each year, this power is exercised only after all 
other means to secure attendance have failed. 



NEW YORK 147 

viction in about one case out of four. 121 Moreover, the parochial 
schools, formerly distinctly suspicious of- any law or ruling 
which touched their interests, now welcomed the assistance and 
supervision of the State Department, thus marking one more 
advance in the direction of unification in the educational activ- 
ities of the state. 

The most important step toward more efficient enforcement 
of attendance laws in the three cities of the first class was the 
enactment of the permanent census law in 1908, 122 a measure 
which passed the Assembly without a dissenting vote. 123 The 
main provisions of this law were: 

1. A census board composed of the Mayor, the police com- 
missioner, and the city superintendent of schools. 

2. An initial census taken under the direction of this board 
by the police and amended from day to day by these officers. 

3. Any person in parental relations to a child of school age 
to report to the police of his precinct two weeks before such 
child reached the compulsory school age, its name, residence, 
school to be patronized, together with other data necessary 
for perfecting an individual record. In case of removal to 
another precinct or to any part of the same precinct, data of 
a similar nature to be recorded at the police station at once. 

The initial census was taken in Buffalo and Rochester in 
October, 1909, but in New York City there was delay due to 
the fact that the law was quite frankly opposed by both the 
police commissioner and the mayor. 124 Commissioner Draper, 
an earnest advocate of the permanent census, brought such a 
degree of pressure to bear upon the hostile members of the 
census board as to secure action, and in 1910 the enumeration 
was put under way, not by means of the regular police force, 
as the law had contemplated, but by special police detailed 
for the purpose. It must be said that this law was never fully 



121. Ibid., 1914, pp. 511, 611. Nearly 3,000 prosecutions a year were now 
undertaken. In New York City in 1911-12, 93 per cent of the parents 
brought before the magistrates for violation of the attendance laws were 
either discharged or dismissed with a reprimand. Fifty-five parents were 
fined, the total sum being $163.00. — Bpt. of Supt. W. E. Maxwell to the 
N. Y. C. L. Com., Dec. 20, 1912 ; files of the Com. 

122. Supra, p. 141. 

123. Bpt. Ed. Bpt., 1911, p. 40. 

124. First An. Bpt. Director of Attendance, New YorTc City, p. 9. 



148 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

enforced in New York City. 125 Police Commissioner Bingham 
gave only reluctant cooperation, and his successor, Commission- 
er Waldo, while apparently less open in his opposition, 
"showed his hostility to the census work and his absolute in- 
accessibility to any but the traditional conceptions of police 
duty." 126 

Notwithstanding the handicap under which the permanent 
census law went into operation, its value at once appeared in 
its early results. Even before its machinery was perfected, 
the police census showed 518 children in Rochester unlawfully 
employed and out of school, 6,318 in Buffalo similarly em- 
ployed and illegally absent from school, and, although the 
census in New York City was very unsatisfactory and certain- 
ly fell short of revealing the true situation, it disclosed 23,241 
cases of this kind. 127 Perhaps no more convincing testimony 
of the inadequacy of the former system of law enforcement 
could be presented. Machinery for the administration of com- 
pulsory attendance had been maintained in these cities since 
1895 ; large sums had been expended by the state in carrying 
out the requirements of child labor laws, yet the first drag- 
net thrown out by the new census boards brought in 30,077 
children who had managed to escape the vigilance of the in- 
spectors and attendance officers. 

But in the rapidly growing city of New York a permanent 
census alone could do little more than call general attention 
to a situation which was already recognized by those in touch 
with the problems of industry and education. Many believed 
certain departments of the city school system required rather 
complete reorganization. In the fall of 1910 the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment ordered an inquiry into the or- 
ganization, equipment, and methods of the Department of 
Education. An extended investigation was made, in the course 
of which detailed attention was given to the problems of ir- 
regular attendance. Conditions revealed were sufficiently 
serious to warrant recommending a change in the methods of 






125. Ibid., p. 10. The defective method was displaced by the present system 
in 1914. 

126. Ibid. 

127. Ept. Ed. Dpt., 1912, p. 325. 



NEW YORK 149 

enforcing the compulsory law. 128 The final outcome was such 
legislation as enabled the city to establish, through the board 
of education, a Bureau of Compulsory Education, School 
Census, and Child Welfare, this organization assuming the 
duties formerly exercised by the permanent census board, and 
becoming responsible for the enforcement of the compulsory 
education law, the newsboys' law, the school census law, and 
for child welfare activities in general. 129 

The work of the Bureau of Attendance — its short legal title 
— can be given but a few paragraphs in a later section. It 
represents an advanced step in centralization and coordination, 
and, properly supported, should become highly effective in 
securing school attendance. 

The same general dissatisfaction with methods of dealing 
with children which led to the New York School Inquiry was 
responsible for another investigation of even greater import- 
ance. For some time there had been a growing demand for 
a closer relationship among the various instruments of govern- 
ment concerned in the administration of employment and edu- 
cation laws throughout the state. This demand was accentuat- 
ed by the practices of two industries which employed many 
thousands of children and which the existing regulations 
seemed unable to reach, the up state canneries and the city 
tenement manufactories. In the former, in rush seasons 
children were employed for eighty and more hours a week. 130 
Though the peculiar needs of the canning industry had been 
recognized in the law, these establishments seemed unwilling 
to accept any restrictions whatever, and during the busy 
seasons violation was the rule. The courts sympathized with 
the employers, and conviction was next to impossible. 131 But 
even more serious were the conditions prevailing in city tene- 
ments, particularly in New York City. Here more than forty 
kinds of manufacturing were carried on in 13,000 houses under 
conditions quite beyond the control of the Department of 



128. 'Report Committee on School Inquiry, p. 673 ff. 

129. First Report Bureau of Attendance, pp. 15, 16. 

130. There is at least one authenticated case of 117% hours in one week; 
photograph of time card in files of New York Child Labor Committee. See 
also Second Report Investigation Commission, 1913, Vol. I, p. 136f. 

131. Second Report Factory Investigation Committee, 1913, Vol. II, p. 769f . 



150 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Labor, which found it impossible to visit these places more 
than once a year. 132 It was known that many young children 
were employed here, though there were no adequate data as 
to the extent of illegal labor. Attempts had been made to 
secure an official investigation, but vested interests had succeed- 
ed in blocking the measures proposed. But on March 25, 1911, 
occurred a disastrous fire in the factory of the Triangle Waist 
Company, in which one hundred forty-five employees, mostly 
women and children, lost their lives. The conviction that this 
unfortunate affair was due to failure to comply with the re- 
quirements of the factory law shocked and aroused the public, 
and it was now possible to secure the appointment of a com- 
mission known as the State Factory Investigating Commission, 
whose duty it was to inquire into the conditions under which 
manufacturing was conducted, with special regard to the 
health and safety of operatives, in order that remedial legis- 
lation might be enacted. 133 

The Commission was limited at first to an inquiry into the 
conditions under which manufacturing was carried on in cities 
of the first and second classes, but later its jurisdiction was 
extended to include both manufacturing and mercantile in- 
dustries throughout the state. 134 A vast array of facts was 
gathered relating to safety, health, wages, hours of employ- 
ment, and legal protection of employees ; public hearings were 
held; hundreds of witnesses were examined; and extensive 
personal investigations of actual working conditions were made 
by members of the Commission, by expert employees, and by 
representatives of philanthropic organizations. 135 

The investigation of the conditions under which children 
were employed revealed little that was not already known by 
those who were in touch with the industrial situation in the 
state. In the cannery sheds mere infants were found at work. 136 
In the city tenements children not over five years of age were 

132. Preliminary Report Factory Investigation Committee, 1912, Vol. I, 
p. 574. 

133. Laws of 1911, ch. 561. 

134. Laws of 1912, ch. 21. 

135. Fourth Bpt. Fac. Inves. Com., 1915, Vol. I, pp. 1-30; Prelim. Bpt., 
1912, Vol. I, p. 25. 

136. Bpt. of the Commission, 1913, Vol. I, p. 135ff. 



NEW YORK 151 

employed, usually by their own parents, under conditions ex- 
tremely prejudicial to health, and in open violation of the 
law. 137 It was found, also, that many children who had been 
granted employment certificates and were legally at work were 
sickly and quite unfit to perform the tasks which boards of 
health had authorized them to undertake. 138 The lack of central 
authority in administration impressed the Commission. Not 
only was there no uniform policy in regard to the health re- 
quirements for working papers, but in proof of age and in 
evidence of educational attainment the interpretation of stand- 
ards varied throughout the state. 139 Those intrusted with the 
execution of these measures were often found to be ignorant 
of their content. The frequent changes of the preceding years 
had confused the officials, no central authority had been re- 
sponsible for the proper publicity and dissemination of amend- 
ments, and as a result there had grown up great variety in 
forms, and methods of procedure. 140 

The Commission became convinced that the labor legislation 
of New York had been based upon faulty principles. Here- 
tofore it had been regarded as necessary to indicate in the law 
itself all requirements for the protection of health, safety, and 
morals of employees, thus giving the statute a rigidity that 
made adjustment to local or individual needs impossible. 141 The 
Commission now proposed such a reorganization as would per- 
mit the delegation of a measure of power to a responsible 
central authority which might make special rules and regula- 






137. Ibid. 

138. Ibid., p. 176. The law now provided that employment certificates 
should be issued to children physically fit to engage in the labor proposed, 
but fixed no standard of fitness and required no physical examination, 
leaving the interpretation of this requirement to local boards of health. As 
a result the health of working children was very inadequately safe-guarded. 
New York City adopted a standard of height and weight, and subjected 
doubtful cases to medical examination, but in general, boards of health 
throughout the state gave little heed to the physical condition of applicants 
for working papers. In 1907, while 23,013 applicants were granted em- 
ployment certificates, only 4 were refused for physical reasons. In 1910, 
the number of certificates granted was 56,351, and though 501 applicants 
failed to meet the physical requirements, this was less than one per cent of 
the total number. See Prelim. Bpt. Fac. Inv. Com., p. 102. 

139. Second Bpt. Fac. Invest. Com., 1913, Vol. II, p. 178f. 

140. Ibid., p. 179. 

141. Ibid., p. 28. 



152 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

tions and provide for their enforcement, basing such action 
on certain broad legislation fixing minimum and maximum 
requirements. 142 

In accordance with this principle the Commission proposed 
a complete reorganization of the Department of Labor, placing 
at its head an Industrial Board of five, composed of the Com- 
missioner of Labor and four members appointed by the gov- 
ernor. The Commission also recommended that the entire 
Labor Code be rewritten. In addition to these recommenda- 
tions, presented in the form of bills, and enacted into law in 
1915, the Commission, at the end of each year of its service, 
proposed numerous bills for remedial legislation, which were 
accepted by the legislature with gratifying unanimity. The 
following provisions were directed to the further control of 
the conditions under which children might be employed: 

1. The Department of Labor was given power to supervise 
local boards of health in the issuance of working papers; to 
make physical examinations through its own medical inspectors 
of children between fourteen and sixteen at work in factories, 
and to exclude any found unfit, cancelling the employment 
certificates issued by boards of health ; and to make rules and 
regulations through its Industrial Board governing the em- 
ployment of minors under eighteen in dangerous occupations. 143 

2. A thorough physical examination was made a pre- 
requisite for working papers. 144 

3. The employment of children under fourteen in tenement 
house manufactories and cannery sheds was forbidden. 145 

4. It was required that the school record of an applicant 
for an employment certificate must show that the child had 
completed the work prescribed for the first six years of the 
public elementary school or school equivalent thereto. 146 

5. The newsboys' law was strengthened, the minimum age 
raised to twelve, the closing hour was made eight p. m., and 
the responsibilities of parents made more definite. 147 

6. The terms "factory," "mercantile establishment," and 
"tenement house" were so clearly defined as to leave no 
grounds for confusion or misinterpretation. 148 



142. Ibid., p. 29. 

143. Laws of 1913, eh. 144. 

144. Laws of 1912, ch. 333. 

145. Laws of 1913, ch. 529. 

146. Laws of 1913, ch. 144. 

147. Laws of 1913, ch. 618. 

148. Laws of 1913, ch. 529 ; Laws of 1914, ch. 512 ; Laws of 1915, ch. 650. 



NEW YORK 153 

By the legislation of 1912 and 1913 the most serious defects 
of the child labor laws were corrected. Children were now 
required to remain in school either until they had completed 
the first six years of the course or had reached the age of 
sixteen. Only those physically fit for labor, as evidenced by 
a careful medical examination, could secure working papers. 
For the first time local boards of health were subjected to at 
least a slight degree of state supervision in the issuance of em- 
ployment certificates. But more important than any of these 
provisions was the creation of the Industrial Board vested 
with power to administer the labor laws and to make regula- 
tions, within fixed limits, flexible enough to serve the best in- 
terests of employers and employees in various industries. The 
authority given this board was a pledge of unity, as the 
creation of the investigating commission had been a demand 
for efficiency. A new era in state protection of wage-earners was 
at hand. 149 Cooperation might now be expected, at least in a 
measure, to take the place of class struggle and political align- 
ment for and against industrial measures, since it had been 
demonstrated that improvement in the conditions under which 
the employee carries forward his work means larger profit to 
the employer. 150 At the very least, the idea of community in- 
terest between worker and employer receives some recognition. 

The program of the Factory Investigating Commission was 
an exceedingly ambitious one. That it was able to bring about 
such radical changes both in laws affecting labor and in 
methods of administration was undoubtedly due not so much 
to its constitution, admirable as it was, nor to a suddenly 
awakened sense of virtue on the part of the legislators, as to 
the fact that at this period there was a general movement, 
manifesting itself in various parts of the country, towards a 
more adequate defense of both adult and child labor, a definite 

149. Fourth Bpt. Fac. Invest. Com., 1915, Vol. I, p. 7. 

150. Ibid., p. 73. An excellent illustration of cooperation between the labor 
and school authorities is found in the juvenile department of the state em- 
ployment bureau. Pupils who have secured employment certificates may 
register at the school and the applications may be transferred to the em- 
ployment bureau where they are treated exactly as are personal registra- 
tions. The principal or superintendent of the employment bureau and the 
advisory committee on juvenile employment cooperate in securing suitable 
positions for the children who must leave school. Laws of 1909, eh. 31, as 
amended 1914, ch. 181. 



154 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

reaction against the prevailing half-hearted methods of 
protection. 151 

Naturally it was not possible so to organize the new ad- 
ministrative machinery as to exclude all men not willing to 
sink personal and political interests. Scarcely had the Depart- 
ment of Labor begun to operate under the law of 1913, when 
it became evident that selfish forces were at work. Important 
posts were removed from the civil service and the places were 
filled with men not distinguished for their training or fitness 
for the work to be done. 152 Prominent citizens protested this 
action, and the public press demanded that the department be 
kept free from politics. 153 On the further recommendation of 
the Factory Investigating Commission, the Department of 
Labor was again reorganized in 1915, greatly centralizing 
authority and responsibility, bringing many important boards 
and bureaus under a single Industrial Commission. 154 

It has been noted that the law of 1913 required children 
under sixteen to complete the sixth grade of the elementary 
school before securing working papers. Almost at once agita- 
tion was begun to advance the scholastic requirements still 
further. 155 It had been found that in New York City about 
sixty-five per cent of all children securing working papers were 
under fifteen years of age and had not completed the elemen- 
tary school course. 156 The Industrial Commission favored 
additional schooling for such children, and legislation was 
secured in 1916 requiring that those between fourteen and 
fifteen years of age could be granted employment certificates 
only in case they had completed the course of the elementary 
school or its equivalent. 157 

In 1916 and 1917 there was further legislation affecting the 
employment and education of children, some of it constructive 
and very significant, while other measures were designed mere- 

151. Fourteenth An. Bpt., N. Y. Com. of Labor, p. 13. 

152. N. Y. Globe, Feb. 28, 1914, editorial. 

153. Brooklyn Eagle, Dec. 12, 1914, editorial. 

154. Laios of 1915, ch. 674. 

155. Mimites N. Y. C. L. Com., Jan. 13, 1916 (unpublished). 

156. Ibid. 

157. Laws of 1916, ch. 465. Did not become effective until Feb. 1, 1917, 
leaving nearly a year for adjustment. 



NEW YOEK 155 

ly to strengthen laws already in operation. Of the latter type 
was a law laying additional restrictions upon occupations 
which might prove injurious to health or morals, aimed speci- 
fically at the employment of children in making moving picture 
films ; 158 there were also progressive changes in the regulations 
concerning truants. 159 

Another measure which should be of great assistance in en- 
forcing school attendance is one creating a permanent census 
bureau in every city in the state. 160 Such bureaus had already 
been established in the three cities of the first class, New York, 
Buffalo, and Rochester. In all other cities the school board 
now constitutes a census board, and under its direction the 
census is taken and amended from day to day. There is some 
doubt as to the efficacy of the census as now administered in 
this state. As noted in a later paragraph, it is not kept up in 
New York City as the law contemplates, nor does it appear 
that in the second and third class cities full use is thus far 
made of this important instrument. 161 

In constructive legislation there were two measures designed 
to make compulsory throughout the state a complete system of 
military and physical training. 162 The first law created a state 
military commission and required that all boys between six- 
teen and nineteen not exempted by the commission, be given 
military training, not aggregating more than three hours per 
week between September 1 and June 15 of each year. 163 An 
amendment of the year following made it possible for the com- 
mission to substitute for a part of the military work, such 

158. Laws of 1916, ch. 278. 

159. Laws of 1917, eh. 563. 

160. Laws of 1917, ch. 567. 

161. Director Davis of the New York Bureau of Attendance, states that the 
census, even in its present incomplete form, is of great value in enforcing 
school attendance. 

162. Military training, Laws of 1916, ch. 566. Physical training, Laws of 
1916, ch. 567. 

163. This appears to be the first state legislation in the Union for compul- 
sory military training. Colonial Massachusetts established such training, 
however, in 1645. The following is the record: "It is therefore ordered, 
yt all youth within this jurisdiction, from ten yeares ould to ye age of 
sixteen yeares shalbe instructed by some one of ye officers of ye band, or 
some other experienced shouldier whom ye chiefs officer shall approve, upon 
ye usuall training dayes, in ye exercise of armes, as small guns, half 
pikes, bowes & arrows, &c." Bee. Col. Mass., Vol. II, p. 99. 



156 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

vocational training or vocational experience as might prepare 
boys "for service useful to the state in the maintenance of 
defense, in the promotion of public safety, in the conservation 
and development of the state 's resources, or in the construction 
and maintenance of public improvements." 164 

The second law prescribes instruction in physical training 
for all children and youth above eight years of age in the 
elementary and secondary schools, both public and private. 
The courses of instruction are to be determined by the regents 
of the University after conference with the military training 
commission, and may, according to the interpretation of that 
body, include medical inspection, talks and recitations in 
hygiene, supervised recreation, organized play and a great 
variety of other activities, as well as the usual forms of gym- 
nastic exercises. 165 

An elaborate program of physical training has been worked 
out, one which probably cannot be fully realized for some 
time. Yet it is expected that at least the minimum require- 
ments can be met, and that each child in the schools of the 
state will be reached in a systematic effort to insure to him 
sound health, physical vigor, self control, a spirit of coopera- 
tion, and habits of justice and fair play. 166 State aid in sup- 
port of physical education is given to the extent of one-half 
the salary of the teachers engaged in it, provided that the 
appropriation for no one teacher shall exceed six hundred 
dollars. 

These measures represent a very advanced step in com- 
pulsory education. New York now proposes not only to re- 
quire that her children receive such intellectual training as 
will enable them to become intelligent members of their com- 
munities, but to insist that they be given such physical train- 
ing as will render them efficient members as well. No other 
state has thus far matched her in this respect. 167 

Brief consideration must be given to the compulsory feat- 



164. Laws of 1917, ch. 49. 

165. University of the State of New York, Bulletin No. 631, 1917, p. 10. 

166. Ibid., p. 11. 

167. War spirit was doubtless responsible for both these measures. The 
military program has not been developed. The legislature now in session 
is likely to limit appropriations for physical education. 



NEW YORK 157 

ures of evening and continuation schools. The evening school 
has never become an important element in New York's system 
of compulsory education. Theoretically, it was made a finish- 
ing school for working boys between fourteen and sixteen who 
had not completed the elementary course, when, in 1910, a law 
was enacted requiring all such boys to attend an evening school 
for at least six hours each week for sixteen weeks annually. 168 
The measure was made to apply to first and second class cities 
only. 

Excellent work is being done in many evening schools 
throughout the state; but excepting a few cities, little effort 
is made to enforce attendance. 169 New York City is fairly 
typical. The law was unpopular from the first, both with the 
boys and with the school authorities. 170 Some effort was made 
to enforce it but without satisfactory results. Registration and 
average attendance declined steadily, until in 1915 of the 
22,000 boys who, under the law, should have been in these 
schools, fewer than twenty per cent were registered, while the 
average attendance was but nine per cent. 171 

Compulsory features were not early to appear in day con- 
tinuation schools in this state. In 1911, the year that Wiscon- 
sin inaugurated her system of compulsory continuation schools, 
Dr. Maxwell, Superintendent of the New York City schools, 
announced his conviction that the attempt to serve the needs 
of children in industry through evening schools was a demon- 
strated failure. He recommended that day continuation schools 
be established and that employers be required to allow each 
employee under nineteen years of age from four to six hours 
a week for forty weeks each year to attend such schools. 172 
In 1913 it was provided by law that when a board of education 
in any city or district should establish part-time or continuation 
schools it might compel the attendance of employed children 
between fourteen and sixteen years of age for not less than 
four nor more than eight hours a week for thirty-six weeks 



168. Laws 1910, ch. 16. 

169. V. S. Dpt. of Labor, Children's Bureau, pub. 17, 1917, pp. 61-62. 

170. N. Y. C. School Report, 1912-13, Evening Schools, p. 72. 

171. N. Y. C. School Report, 1915-16, Continuation and Part Time Classes, 
p. 143. 

172. Ibid., p. 146; Eeport of Dr. George E. Meyers. 



158 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

each year, provided such children had not already completed 
courses equivalent to that of the elementary school. 173 

It was expected that boards of education disapproving of 
compulsory attendance upon evening schools would take early 
advantage of the Wilmot law, but, outside of New York City, 
no district took steps to put it in operation. In this city the 
board established continuation classes in two schools in lower 
Manhattan and required the attendance of children who came 
within the terms of the law, who were living or employed be- 
low Fourteenth Street. 

Notable progress was made here in establishing continuation 
classes with attendance upon a voluntary basis, or with com- 
pulsion exercised by employers rather than by school officials, 
a considerable number of the business houses employing 
children maintaining classes in their buildings and requiring 
attendance. Instruction in such classes was under the direc- 
tion of the school authorities. 

But neither evening or day continuation schools on a volun- 
tary basis touched the real problem of the employment- 
certificate child. It was estimated that 58,000 children between 
fourteen and sixteen years of age were at work at a given 
time in New York City alone. Of these, about 37,000 had not 
completed the elementary school. The proposal of the Board 
of Education to establish day continuation schools in which 
the needs of these children might be met and to enforce at- 
tendance upon them could not be carried out owing to the 
lack of funds. 174 Pressure was brought to bear from various 
sources, and in 1919 a law was enacted providing for com- 
pulsory continuation or part-time schools throughout the 
state. 175 

Under the terms of this measure, school districts having a 
population of 5000 or over are obliged to maintain continuation 
schools or classes and to compel the attendance of all minors 



173. Laws 1918, ch. 748; the " Wilmot Law." 

174. New York City School Eeport, op. tit., p. 148. 

175. Laws 1919, ch. 531. The continuation school law of 1919 represents a 
very advanced step in the development of a complete system of compulsory 
schooling, and though it is certain to be modified by the legislature now in 
session, its historical importance seems to warrant a fuller statement both 
of it and the interpretations and regulations made by Regents of the 
University than is here possible. 



NEW YORK 159 

between the ages of fourteen and eighteen who are not in 
regular attendance upon other instruction and who have not 
completed a four-years' secondary course approved by the 
Regents of the University. Those regularly employed are re- 
quired to attend for at least four hours each week ; those tem- 
porarily out of employment must attend not less than twenty 
hours a week. The Commissioner of Education is required by 
the law to make a survey of each city or district in the state 
in order to determine its peculiar needs; in this survey the 
Industrial Commission and the Commissioner of Agriculture 
are directed to cooperate. The local board of education is 
made responsible for the establishment of the continuation 
school and for carrying out all the provisions of the law, but 
it is required to appoint an advisory board of five members 
representing the local trades, industries and occupations, 
whose duty it is to give counsel and advice. Generous financial 
aid is given by the state to be applied to paying the salaries 
of teachers in the part-time schools, such aid being supple- 
mented through the Smith-Hughes funds. 

The law required that the part-time schools be put in opera- 
tion with the opening of the school year in September, 1920. 
This measure was not retroactive, and during this year attend- 
ance is compulsory only for children between fourteen and six- 
teen years of age. As in Massachusetts a district failing to 
establish a school forfeits a portion of the state appropria- 
tions, this forfeiture being turned over to the board of educa- 
tion of the offending city to be used in the maintenance of the 
required school. Suitable penalties are established for in- 
fraction of the law by parent, child, or employer. 

According to the records available in the office of the Divi- 
sion of Vocational and Extension Education at Albany, con- 
tinuation classes have been organized in 103 cities and dis- 
tricts with an attendance of 15,972. 176 A ruling of the 
Regents permits local authorities to hold continuation 
classes on Saturday forenoons, and it is estimated that about 
one-fifth of the schools have all their work at this time. There 
are some distinct advantages in this plan. Many industries 



176. The enrollment ranges from a single pupil in Huntington to 8,000 in 
New York City. 



160 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

provide for a half-holiday on Saturday afternoon. In such 
case it does not disarrange matters seriously to relieve minors 
for the entire day each week. Then, as a more important 
element, school plants, already crowded, sometimes find it ex- 
ceedingly difficult to provide suitable quarters for the con- 
tinuation classes, the result being that these children who need 
every possible means of encouragement find themselves in 
buildings and surroundings quite the reverse of inspiring. By 
conducting this work on Saturday morning the best that the 
plant affords may be utilized. It is too early to discuss the 
enforcement of the continuation school law. In the year 1920 
working papers to the number of 74,686 were issued in this 
state to children between fourteen and sixteen years of age. 177 
Since only 15,972 children of corresponding ages are registered 
in the continuation schools this year, it seems probable that 
many children are being deprived of the schooling intended 
by the law through inadequate enforcement. 178 

The friends of education, in preparing the continuation 
school law, apparently went further than the present temper 
of the people warrants. Yet even with the modifications con- 
templated, New York will have a system of compulsory schools 
which, properly administered, will keep all her children under 
educational influences until they are sixteen years of age. 179 

The features of the compulsory attendance and child labor 
laws now in operation and most important from the viewpoint 
of this study are here briefly summarized: 

1. Every child of compulsory school age and in proper 
mental and physical condition shall attend school for the full 
session, at least 180 days annually, as follows: 



177. Manuscript record, office of Industrial Commissioner. 

178. The writer visited the schools in Albany and Troy and spent several days 
in studying the situation in New York City. The difficulties in connection 
with the enforcement of the measure in the latter place are very great, 
and can only gradually be overcome. In the smaller cities, enforcement is 
largely a question of cooperation between the schools and the industrial 
forces. Some of the details of the law, for example, the report by the 
employer in case a child stops work, are not carried out, but a sincere 
attempt is made, apparently with a fair degree of success, to keep employed 
children in school. 

179. It is expected that compulsory attendance upon continuation classes 
will be required only of children between fourteen and sixteen, and that no 
school will be maintained unless there are at least fifty minors who should 
attend. 



NEW YORK 161 

a. In cities and districts of 5000 or more inhabitants and 
employing a superintendent, between the ages of seven and 
fourteen; between the ages of fourteen and sixteen unless 
possessing an employment certificate and regularly employed. 

b. In all other districts, precisely as above, except that the 
compulsory period begins at eight instead of seven. 

c. No child who has not completed the elementary school 
course or its equivalent can secure an employment certificate 
prior to his fifteenth birthday; in many cases, therefore, the 
minimum leaving age is fifteen. 

d. Special educational opportunities for children who are 
retarded or who are defective mentally or physically. 

e. Cities or districts having a population of 5000 or more 
must maintain continuation or part-time classes and require 
the attendance during thirty-six weeks, not less than four 
hours nor more than eight hours each week, of all regularly 
employed minors under eighteen, not graduates of high school. 
All such minors not regularly employed and not in any other 
school are required to attend not less than twenty hours per 
week. 

f. The board of education in all cities of the state except 
those of the first class constitutes a census board, and under 
its direction the census is to be taken and amended from day 
to day by attendance officers and special census enumerators. 

2. Enforcement of attendance is in the hands of local school 
authorities and is administered through attendance officers, 
with whom the Compulsory Attendance Division of the State 
Department of Education cooperates. 

3. The penalty upon the parent whose child does not attend 
upon instruction as required is, for the first offense, a fine 
not exceeding five dollars or imprisonment for five days; for 
each subsequent offense the fine may reach a maximum of 
fifty dollars and imprisonment may be extended to thirty days. 
Special penalties are fixed for the violation of the continuation 
school law. 

4. Employment of children is restricted as follows: 

a. No child under fourteen may be employed in any occupa- 
tion during any part of the time the public schools are in 
session. 

b. No child under fourteen may be employed at any time 
in a factory, mill, mercantile establishment, business or tele- 
graph office, restaurant, hotel, apartment house, or in the dis- 
tribution or transmission of merchandise or messages. 

(1) But boys over the age of twelve years may be em- 
ployed in gathering produce, for not more than six hours in 
one day, subject to the requirements of the education law, and 



162 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

farmers' children may engage in farm work for their parents 
when schools are not in session. 

(2) In cities of the first, second and third classes boys over 
twelve may, under certain restrictions, sell newspapers and 
magazines in the streets or other public places. 

c. In cities of 5000 or more children between fourteen and 
sixteen may not be employed in any occupation unless in 
possession of an employment certificate. In school districts 
of less population they may be employed at home or in other 
than the forbidden occupations if in possession of a school 
record certificate. 

d. Children under sixteen may not be employed at night, 
or for more than eight hours a day in factories, or for more 
than nine hours a day in mercantile and other regulated in- 
dustries. In no case is employment to be for more than six 
days a week. 

5. Employment certificates are issued by local boards of 
health on application of the child's parent or custodian when 
the following conditions have been met: 

a. Documentary evidence of age to be presented. 

b. If the child is between fourteen and fifteen, he must 
present a school record certificate and a certificate of com- 
pletion of the elementary school course. If he is between 
fifteen and sixteen he must present a school record certificate 
showing that he has completed at least six years of the ele- 
mentary school course. 

c. Physical fitness as determined by examination. 

d. Ability to read and legibly write simple sentences in the 
English language, determined by examination. 

6. School record certificates are issued as follows: 

a. In cities of the first class by the principal or chief ex- 
ecutive of the school. 

b. In other cities and districts having a population of 5000 
or more, by the superintendent of schools. 

c. In all other districts, by the principal teacher of the 
public school. 

7. Enforcement of the child labor laws is primarily in the 
hands of inspectors of the State Industrial Commission, but in 
cities other than those of the first and second classes, having 
3000 or more inhabitants, the mercantile law is enforced by 
local boards of health. In villages of less than 3000 no defi- 
nite provision is made for enforcement. 

8. Parents or employers violating the labor provisions of 
the attendance law are subject, for the first offense, to a fine 
of not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars; for each 
subsequent offense, a fine of not less than fifty nor more than 
two hundred dollars. For making false statements in any 



NEW YORK 163 

affidavit, record, or certificate, the penalty is, for the first of- 
fense, a fine as above; for a second offense, a fine of not less 
than fifty nor more than two hundred and fifty dollars, or im- 
prisonment for not more than thirty days, or both fine and im- 
prisonment; for any subsequent violation, a fine of not less 
than two hundred fifty dollars, or imprisonment not to exceed 
sixty days, or both. 

Enforcement of the child labor and attendance laws has 
reached a relatively high degree of effectiveness in the state 
of New York. In New York City, under the Bureau of Attend- 
ance established in 1914, an elaborate organization for the 
administration of attendance regulations has been developed. 
There is an apparent lack of cooperation on the part of the 
officials charged with the enforcement of the child labor laws, 
as has always been the case in this state, but with the per- 
fection of its follow-up system and a census properly amended 
from day to day, the bureau should be able to keep in touch 
with the child from the moment he is of school age until the 
statutes no longer require his attendance at school or restrict 
his employment. Each day the Department of Health sends 
to the Attendance Bureau the names of all children to whom 
employment certificates have been issued. It then becomes 
the duty of the bureau to see that such children are either at 
work or in school. 

It cannot be said that the record of attendance in New York 
City is satisfactory. There has been a serious falling off in 
the percentage of attendance based on net enrollment within 
the last three years. 180 This can be accounted for in part by 
serious epidemics, including infantile paralysis and Spanish 
influenza, which have swept over the city, in part by the coal 
famine, by a shortage in teachers and by lack of housing 
facilities. 181 Other disorganizing elements doubtless enter in- 
to the situation, which is an exceeding complex one. 

The operation of the permanent census law has been a dis- 
appointment to friends of the measure who saw in it the pos- 
sibilities of a perfected system of child accounting. When 



180. The percentage of attendance upon enrollment in 1906 was 89.5; ten 
years later it was precisely the same. First 'Report Bureau of Aattendance, 
p. 58. According to unpublished data, it dropped to 77.8 in 1919, reaching 
78 in 1920. 

181. See Second Report, Bureau of Attendance, p. 21. 



164 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

first enacted it fell into the hands of its enemies. 182 Later its 
execution was entrusted to the newly created Bureau of At- 
tendance, whose officers clearly realized the importance of this 
instrument in the successful accomplishment of their task. The 
initial cost of an accurate census in a large city is great and 
the amount of labor involved is quite beyond the realization 
of the layman. After it has been taken the census rapidly 
loses its value unless kept up with absolute fidelity. This re- 
quires faithful, constant service and considerable financial out- 
lay. The Board of Education has not been generous in its ask- 
ings in support of the census and the Board of Estimate has 
declined to appropriate even that which has seemed to the 
educational authorities absolutely essential. As a consequence 
the census has not been kept up and several thousand children 
are reported "not found." 183 

The Bureau of Attendance is apparently securing a higher 
degree of cooperation from teachers and principals than they 
gave in the troubled days of Associate Superintendent Shal- 
low, 184 yet the conditions which perplexed and irritated the 
administrative officers a decade ago have not entirely been 
overcome. 185 Relations with the courts have improved within 
recent years. Formerly, parents and children violating the 
attendance laws were taken before the magistrates of the 
police courts, the results usually being most unfortunate from 
the standpoint of the enforcing officers. 186 Later, cases in 
which children were involved were heard in the Domestic 
Relations Court where the judges, while still reluctant to 
penalize the offending parents, were interested in the work of 
the Bureau and gave its cases sympathetic hearings. 187 In the 
year 1916 the Municipal Term Court was organized as a court 
before which might be brought all cases in which a city de- 
partment or bureau was the complainant, and except in Brook- 



182. Supra, p. 148. 

183. Second Beport, Bureau of Attendance, pp. 92, 93, 94, 268. 

184. Supra, p. 144. 

185. First Beport, Bureau of Attendance, p. 45 ; Second Beport, p. 19. 

186. Supra, pp. 142, 145. 

187. First Beport, Bureau of Attendance, p. 120. The records ahow that 
only eight per cent of the cases brought against parents resulted in con- 
viction. 



NEW YORK 



165 



lyn all prosecutions for violations of the attendance laws have 
since been assigned to this court. 

Other elements remaining fairly constant, the number of 
prosecutions indicate the vigor with which a law is enforced. 
It is significant that since the creation of the Bureau of At- 
tendance the number of prosecutions for violation of the law 
has risen steadily. 188 The following diagram presents in 
graphical form the record of prosecutions over a score of years. 



50 i- 


















































































































































/ 




A.0 — 


































1 






































/ 




































I 






































J 
































































































































































































































































































































































~— 


































y 


/ 






































\f 





































Diagram 1. Ratio of prosecutions for violation of attendance laws 
in New York City to net enrollment in public day schools. For 
convenience the number of prosecutions is indicated in tenths per 
thousand of enrollment. For example, in 1906 there was one prose- 
cution for each one thousand of the net enrollment. The enrollment 
in parochial schools — nearly one-seventh of the grand total — is 
not included. It is probable that its inclusion could not greatly 
affect the curve. 



The Attendance Bureau conducts a court of its own before 
which truant children and others who for various reasons have 



188. Second Report, Bureau of Attendance, pp. 25-28. In 1914, the last 
year under the former method, there were 956 prosecutions; in the year 
ending with July, 1920, there were 4,006. 



166 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

been absent from school are brought, together with their 
parents, for hearings. There are many thousands of such cases 
annually. The cause of absence is sought, medical attention 
is given when necessary, the duty of regular attendance is 
painstakingly explained to parents who very frequently can 
speak no English, and only in exceptional cases is resort had 
to the regular courts. 189 As one result of this preliminary 
hearing and the careful sifting of cases, charges finally 
brought against parents or incorrigible children are usually 
sustained. 

In the state as a whole the effectiveness of enforcement 
varies, as might be expected in any system of administration 
in which ten thousand or more local centers must be depended 
upon to carry out the laws. Various factors in addition to the 
multiplicity of officials contribute to lack of uniformity in re- 
sults, among them being the complexity of the laws themselves, 
which, in the process of their evolution, have grown exceeding- 
ly intricate and unnecessarily confusing. 190 Frequent changes 
have made it difficult for untrained officials to know just what 
they are legally required to do; even those who should be 
reasonably expert stumble hopelessly over some of their 
duties. 191 

It seems clear, also, that many of those whose duty it is to 
enforce the laws are not in sufficient sympathy with them to 
give the cooperation absolutely essential to efficiency. This is 
true not only of judges who place themselves superior to the 
law but of officials who ignore some of its simple and definite 
provisions. 192 There can be no doubt also that enforcement 
will remain in a more or less confused state until central 
authority directs more closely the administration of employ- 
ment certificates. Apparently sufficient power is already lodged 
in the Industrial Commission, but thus far supervision of this 

189. Ibid., pp. 28-29. One who spends an afternoon in this informal court 
gains two very definite impressions: first, that the officers are seeking to 
secure the willing and intelligent cooperation of both delinquent children 
and their parents; second, that the problem of Americanization in this city- 
is, in no small degree, a problem of the mastery of the English language. 

190. U. S. Deft, of Labor, Children's Bureau, Pub. No. 17, 1917, p. 111. 

191. Supra, p. 151. 

192. U. S. Dept. of Labor, Children's Bureau, op. cit., pp. 93, 99, 104. 



NEW YORK 167 

important preliminary to the employment of children has been 
but nominal. 

The laws themselves, besides being cumbersome, fail as yet 
to include certain features which are necessary for the most 
efficient administration. 193 For example, an employment cer- 
tificate, once issued, becomes the property of the child. He 
may present it to an employer and go to work, or he may loaf 
on the streets with it in his pocket. If after a period of em- 
ployment he stops work, he may claim his certificate and either 
present it elsewhere or remain idle as he chooses ; only the un- 
guided vigilance of the attendance officer will return him to 
school unless he elects to resume his studies. 194 Again some 
sections of the child labor laws are so drawn as to render en- 
forcement exceedingly difficult. The mercantile law, except 
as it applies to cities of the first and second classes, is an 
illustration. 195 

But when it is recalled that legislation of enforceable 
character for the protection and schooling of children in this 
state is largely the product of the present century, the relative- 
ly high standards attained both in the laws and their ad- 
ministration become significant, More than one hundred fifty 
inspectors, representing the Industrial Commission, have practi- 
cally eliminated illegal child labor from the larger' factories, 
and have greatly restricted it in mercantile establishments in 
the larger cities. The state program of compulsory education 
is as promising as that in any other state in the Union. It 
would seem, also, that in no one of the larger states has the 



193. That the local boards of health should be required to issue working 
papers is an illustration of inertia. It has long been recognized that this 
practice, set up in 1896, was an unwarranted one. The boards of health 
are not interested except so far as the physical condition of the children is 
concerned, they have no contact with the industry into which the applicant 
is going and they never hear of the child, officially, after he leaves the ex- 
amination room, unless he returns for another certificate. The examination 
as to literacy is still required by law, but probably rarely given. One head 
of a city health department, on being interviewed, stated that he always 
gave the examination, or had it given. He hands the applicant a slip of 
paper on which is typed the sentence, "George Washington was the first 
president of the United States." If the child can copy this sentence and 
read it, he passes. 

194. The law establishing continuation schools provides that on termination 
of employment the certificate shall be mailed immediately by the employer 
to the school authorities. So far as observed this injunction is not obeyed. 

195. Supra, p. 162. 



168 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

central educational authority gone further in standardizing 
school attendance regulations. 196 

Gradually the authority of the State has been extended until 
now it is able not only to influence education but to compel 
legal requirements. The Department of Education was given 
power in 1894 197 to withhold half the public funds from any 
district failing to enforce the compulsory attendance law. This 
power the Department has not hesitated to exercise, but only 
as a final resort. The ideal of the department in the adminis- 
tration of this law, as expressed through the chief of its Divi- 
sion of Compulsory Attendance, has been that of cooperation 
rather than force. No effort has been spared to gain the con- 
fidence of school officials throughout the state, and to let them 
know that the department is squarely backing them in law en- 
forcement. Inspectors of the Attendance Division are busy 
among the schools, and on occasion the chief himself goes to 
a particularly difficult field to assist local authorities in en- 
forcing the law. Much attention is now given the parochial 
schools, these being amenable to the attendance laws if 
children of the compulsory school age are registered in them. 
A great deal has been done for these schools, which, in many 
instances were " alien in language, sentiment and purpose," 
before coming under the supervision of the state. 198 

The most intimate point of contact between the State Depart- 
ment of Education and the schools is in a system of monthly 
reports made by the latter. Each month transcripts of more 
than 14,000 registers are filed by the schools with the Attend- 
ance Division. By means of these reports it is possible for the 
staff to locate districts in which attendance is unsatisfactory. 
Correspondence usually follows, and if later reports do not 
show improvement a visit is made by one of the inspectors. 
Usually proper adjustments are made, but as a final resort the 
offending community is penalized by withholding state funds. 



196. Pennsylvania is now attempting a somewhat similar method of super- 
vising attendance. 

197. Laws of 1894, ch. 671. 

198. N. T. School Report, 1914, p. 410. Since 1917 two or three of the 
inspectors best adapted to such service have given most of their time to the 
"foreign language" schools. It is peculiarly unfortunate that just as 
results are beginning to appear, the legislature, in its zeal to economize, 
should deem it necessary to reduce by one-half the staff of field workers. 



NEW YORK 169 

''This is the 'big stick,' " writes Chief Sullivan, "that, when 
wielded, has never failed to bring results." 

It should not be difficult for New York to still further 
centralize her system of education and through adequate super- 
vision and inspection to secure practically complete enforce- 
ment of the attendance laws. The state already exercises ex- 
tensive authority in certain phases of education, apparently 
without impairing local interests or initiative. In her statutes 
she has expressed the desire not only to provide for every child 
within her limits an opportunity to secure an education adapt- 
ed to his needs, but to require that he accept that opportunity, 
at least in so far as to remain under educational influences un- 
til well through the period of adolescence. It remains for her 
to perfect the organization by means of which this desire may 
be realized. 



CHAPTER VII 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Pennsylvania was among the last of the northern states to 
provide by compulsory laws for the education of her children. 
Like New York she delayed the establishment of free public 
schools until near the middle of the nineteenth century, mean- 
time offering to such poor children as wished to accept it an 
inferior schooling as a public charity. The state was also late 
in offering adequate protection to her youth in industry. 1 Per- 
haps no other state has been so sharply criticized, and not 
without cause, for the extent to which children were permitted 
to labor and for the character of employment left open to them. 
Yet to-day, Pennsylvania ranks among the most progressive 
states in the character of legislation for the protection, educa- 
tion and industrial training of children. 

Universal education was legally established in 1848, when 
public schools, open and free to poor and rich alike, were made 
compulsory in all parts of the state. But the battle for the 
principle of public education was won more than a decade 
earlier under the leadership of Governor George Wolf. 

The common school fund was established on a fairly gener- 
ous basis in 1831, and in that year (Governor Wolf began the 
fight which, while it resulted in his political overthrow, gave 
the state a system of free common schools. The Pennsylvania 
Society for the Promotion of Public Schools, organized in 
Philadelphia in 1827, had carried out an effective program of 
investigation and publicity, in which it exposed the inefficiency 
of the pauper school law in reaching even the small class it 
was supposed to benefit. It appeared that in many cases county 
officials were deliberately excluding from school children who 
under the law were entitled to free tuition, and that, even 



1. Pennsylvania's first child labor law was enacted in 1848. Only four 
states had preceded her in such legislation. The measure of that year was 
of little value, and not until 1889 was any real protection given to children. 



170 



PENNSYLVANIA 171 

where the law was faithfully carried out, results were not sat- 
isfactory. 2 The governor, on first interesting himself in the 
question, did not go so far as to ask for a complete public 
elementary school free to all classes but urged only that the 
constitutional requirements be met and that all indigent 
children in the state be given the rudiments of learning. 3 But 
in 1833 he pushed the principle to its logical conclusion and 
made universal education the leading topic in his annual 
message. His proposal for a more adequate school system was 
well received both by the legislature and by the people in many 
parts of the state. The legislature was further stimulated by 
numerous memorials asking for favorable consideration of a 
public school system ; a joint committee was created, headed by 
Senator Samuel Breek, 4 and instructed to report a bill for a 
general system of education. After a careful investigation of 
other state school systems, a needlessly cumbersome bill was 
presented and passed with but a single dissenting vote. 5 Free 
schools were not made compulsory by this measure, but each 
district might elect to establish such schools, provide for a 
school tax, and share in the state funds, or it might sacrifice 
its share of the state fund and continue under the pauper law 
of 1809. 

Strangely enough, considering the practically unanimous 
action of the legislature, the law was hotly resisted from the 
first, especially in the districts predominately German. 6 The 



2. Wiekersham, Hist, of Ed. in Penn., p. 299. 

3. Ibid., p. 296. 

4. Senator Breek who wrote the bill and was influential in securing its 
passage, was a former citizen of Connecticut and brought with him to 
Pennsylvania something of the educational ideals of New England. — Penn. 
Mag. of Hist, and Biog., Vol. XXXVII, p. 78. 

5. Laws, Act of April 1, 1834. 

6. Wiekersham, op. eit., p. 319. The German Lutheran Church in Pennsyl- 
vania had stoutly resisted from the beginning any form of education that 
threatened to substitute English or American influences for German. Many 
of the German immigrants prior to the Revolution were very poor and rela- 
tively ignorant. Church schools were unable to meet the educational needs 
and an effort was made to bring the children into schools supported by 
philanthropy. Unfortunately the movement was designated by the offensive 
title, ' ' The Charitable Scheme to Educate the Poor Germans. ' ' It was sup- 
ported by English money (See Weber, The Charity School Movement in 
Colonial Pennsylvania, 1905, p. 22) and no doubt was an attempt to educate 
the children away from their native language and customs, in the belief 
that by so doing an intelligent and loyal citizenship might the more readily 



172 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Rev. Henry A. Muhlenberg became spokesman for the oppo- 
nents of the law, and entered the gubernatorial campaign as 
a candidate against Governor Wolf. 7 He succeeded in dividing 
the Democratic vote, thus insuring the election of Joseph Rit- 
ner, who fortunately proved to be as fearless a champion of 
free schools as was Governor Wolf himself. The next legis- 
lature was confronted with 580 petitions signed by 31,989 
citizens, asking for the repeal of the law, while the names of 
but 2083 were presented remonstrating against the repeal. 8 
The Senate voted by a large majority for repeal, but by skill- 
ful manipulation in the House and through the powerful in- 
fluence of Thaddeus Stevens, the most important provisions of 
the law were saved and the foundation of a free school system 
assured. 9 

Doubtless the schools suffered at first for lack of expert 
direction, and the advance towards a free tax-supported school, 
compulsory upon all districts, was probably slower than it 
would have been under wise professional leadership. 10 But 
adoption of the new system proceeded quite rapidly after the 
first year, and in 1837 three-fourths of all the districts outside 
Philadelphia and Lancaster were cooperating, double the 
number of children formerly attending were in school, while 

be established. The movement was resisted vigorously by the church which, 
in 1786, introduced in its litany the following paragraph: 

"And since it has pleased Thee, chiefly by means of the Germans, to 
transform this State into a blooming garden, and the desert into a pleasant 
pasturage, help us not to deny our nation, but to endeavor that our youth 
may be so educated that German schools and churches may not only be sus- 
tained, but may attain a still more flourishing condition." Allgemevnes 
Kirchengebeth; Kirchenagende der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Vereinigten 
Gemeinen in N or d- America, pp. 4ff. See Kuhns, German and Swiss Settle- 
ments of Colonial Pennsylvania, p. 117. 

7. Mr. Muhlenberg, in making opposition to the free school law the basis 
of his campaign, said of his German constituency in a letter to the working- 
men of Philadelphia, "The Germans of our state are not opposed to educa- 
tion as such, but only to any system that to them seems to trench on their 
paternal and natural rights. — Kuhns, op cit., p. 149. 

8. Penn. Mag. of Hist, and Biog., op. cit., p. 79. 

9. Ibid., pp. 81ff, also P. L., 1876, No. 166. 

10. Under the law of 1834, the Secretary of State was made, ex officio, 
Superintendent of Common Schools, an arrangement not unusual in the 
earlier years of the state school systems. The practice continued in Penn- 
sylvania until 1857. Commenting on the professional character of the first 
six superintendents, Wickersham says: "All of these gentlemen were dis- 
tinguished lawyers and politicians." — Hist, of Ed. in Penn., p. 357. 



PENNSYLVANIA 173 

the actual expense per capita of instruction was decidedly less 
than under the old system. 11 By 1847 all but 144 districts had 
voluntarily adopted the state system, and the following year 
the law was made general and each community was legally 
obligated to maintain a free public school. 12 

As early as 1844 the superintendents began to discuss the 
evils of irregular attendance upon the schools, and in their 
official reports the subject in its various aspects receives a good 
share of attention. 13 The indifference and neglect of parents 
is frequently deplored, one superintendent poetically observing : 

"Where no sheaves have been gathered in the stubble of 
learning, the refreshing influence of the speechless dew will 
not be perceived." 14 

None of the superintendents advocated compulsory attend- 
ance; probably the political scars from the battle for com- 
pulsory schools were too fresh for that. Mostly, they deal in 
meaningless generalities, but Superintendent C. A. Black, while 
not definitely recommending legislation, faces the issue square- 
ly, saying: 

"The children of the Commonwealth are public property, 
and the government, as a faithful guardian, cannot discharge 
the trust without preparing them for the rights and duties of 
citizenship. ' ,15 

Meanwhile the labor interests had been seeking to gain some 
legal concessions for factory children, but without success. 
After considerable agitation the Senate, in March, 1837, direct- 
ed a committee to gather facts relative to the employment of 
children and report at the next session. The following summer 
hearings were held in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and a re- 
port was presented on February 7 of the following year. The 
committee found that in the textile industries, where working 
conditions seemed least favorable, one-fifth of all employees 
were under twelve years of age, and one-twentieth under ten. 



11. Bpt. Supt. Com. Schs., 1837, pp. 35, 46. 

12. Laws, 1848, No. 227. A few districts disregarded the law. As late as 
1868, twenty-three districts representing six thousand children had no school 
in operation. The last district yielded in 1873. — Wickersham, op. cit., 
p. 369. 

13. Bpt. Supt. Com. Schs., 1844, p. 7. 

14. Ibid., 1848, p. 12. 

15. Bpt. Supt. Com. Schs., 1S53, p. 15. 



174 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Parents, it was found, were often eager to secure places for 
little children under seven. The hours were long, eleven, 
twelve, sometimes fourteen per day; there was, of course, no 
opportunity for schooling; and the moral condition was not 
satisfactory. The committee had satisfied itself that it was 
neither desirable nor profitable for young children to labor in 
factories, and they therefore submitted a bill for a law in- 
tended to exclude from such employment all under ten years 
of age, to require at least three months schooling annually for 
all children employed but not able to read, write, and keep 
accounts, and to limit the hours of daily employment for all 
under sixteen to ten. The bill was presented at an unfortunate 
time, during the financial and industrial depression of 1837- 
1838, and received little attention. 16 Bills of various kinds 
looking to better conditions for working children were present- 
ed at intervals, showing a growing interest in the questions 
involved, but in 1848 there was unusual activity. Just what 
forces were back of the movement is not now known, as the 
papers of the period are silent on that point. 17 But on March 
27, a law was enacted, which excluded from textile factories 
all children under twelve years of age and made ten hours the 
legal working day for those under sixteen, with a proviso that 
those of fourteen or above might be employed for a longer 
period on special contract with the parent or guardian. 18 The 
penalty upon the employer for the violation of the law was 
fifty dollars, with the unique provision that one-half the sum 
should go to the child employed. There was no educational 
clause, means of enforcement were lacking, and the measure 
was satisfactory to no one. 19 

The following year, by a most extraordinary bit of legisla- 
tive jockeying, the law of 1848 was repealed and another en- 
acted raising the age limit for employment in textile, paper, 
and bagging factories to thirteen, requiring that those under 
sixteen might not be compelled to work more than ten hours 
in one day and forbidding the employment of any protected 



16. Barnard, Factory Legislation in Penn., 1907, pp. 15-17. 

17. Barnard, op. cit., p. 49. 

18. Laws, 1848, No. 227. 

19. See Barnard, op. cit. 



PENNSYLVANIA 175 

person for a longer period than nine months unless he had 
attended school for at least three consecutive months within 
the same year. 20 The system of penalties for the violation of 
the several provisions of this law was peculiar and in itself 
sufficiently cumbersome and indefinite to encourage non- 
enforcement. Parents and guardians permitting children under 
thirteen to work in the forbidden industries and those "will- 
fully and knowingly" employing them were subject to a fine 
of fifty dollars. Parents and guardians alone were liable to 
such fine for permitting a child to work for more than ten 
hours, and employers alone for failure to see that the school- 
ing requirement had been met. Half the fine was to go to 
the person bringing suit and half to the county. Some minor 
changes were made in the law in 1855, 21 but they gave it little 
strength, and apparently it was never enforced. Employers 
were even unaware of its existence, 22 and it lay upon the statute 
books inoperative for forty years. 23 

The educational provisions of the child labor law seem not 
to have interested school officials. One State Superintendent 
mentions it, 24 but does not suggest legislation to render co- 
operation possible. There was evidently no wish to inaugurate 
compulsory attendance, even of the indirect type of the child 
labor act. The schools were inadequate for the proper ac- 
commodation of the children who attended voluntarily. Ma- 
terial equipment was insufficient, 25 and teachers were un- 
trained, incompetent, and sometimes uncouth. 26 It was not 



20. Laws, 1849, No. 415. 

21. Laws, 1855, No. 501. 

22. Barnard, op. cit., p. 23f . 

23. In 1889, a workable law was enacted and factory inspection inaugurated. 

24. Bpt. Supt. of Com. Schs., 1857, p. 69. 

25. State Superintendent Wickersham, in his first annual report, 1866, p. viii, 
presents a brief survey of the school buildings of the state; a summary 
follows: 

Total number of school buildings 11301 

Number unfit for use 1848 

Number lacking outbuildings 4545 

Number lacking adequate grounds 6210 

Number lacking proper or sufficient furniture 5888 
Number wholly without apparatus 1847 

26. A teacher is described by a superintendent who saw him at work as 
''without coat or jacket, his pantaloons low down on his hips, and, worse 
than all, barefooted." — Bpt. Supt. Com. Schs., 1857, p. 18. 



176 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

possible to urge compulsory attendance until the educational 
facilities could be improved. 

Superintendent Wickersham realized that the question of 
irregular attendance and absenteeism must be faced presently. 
In his report of 1867 he mentions it, not, he says, for the pur- 
pose of suggesting a remedy, but in order that an inquiry as 
to its cause and cure may be started. As a preliminary step 
to such an inquiry he suggests that legal provision be made 
for a school census. 27 It was known that many children were 
growing up without school advantages; Mr. Wickersham es- 
timated that the number would reach 75,000, an estimate fair- 
ly well sustained by the figures published a few years later by 
the Bureau of Industrial Statistics. 28 Reluctantly Dr. Wicker- 
sham came to the conclusion that the only way to stem the 
tide of ignorance in Pennsylvania was by sharp, decisive law. 
However, like Horace Mann in Massachusetts a generation 
earlier, he feared compulsory attendance laws as being out of 
harmony with the American idea of democracy. He realized 
also, as one of the keenest students of education in the State, 
that the people would not at that time sympathize with the 
enforcement of such measures. He regarded the compulsory 
legislation of Massachusetts as unsuccessful, saying: 

"The experience in Massachusetts teaches us that we in 
Pennsylvania must look in some other direction than that of 
a compulsory law to find the remedy we are seeking for the 
evil of non-attendance at school." 29 

He recognized the tendency towards state control, however, 
saying : 

"If society cannot be so improved as to make parents, and 
those who have the care of children, feel the importance of 
sending them to school, and sending them regularly, the time 
will surely come when the State will pass a law compelling 
such attendance. I prefer to test voluntary action fully, fair- 
ly, and patiently, before resorting to fine." 30 

But by 1873 Dr. Wickersham was advocating a compulsory 
attendance law, the child to be taken from the parent who re- 



27. Ibid., 1867, p. ix. 

28. Bpt. Bu. of Indust. Stat., 1873, p. 101 ; 1874, p. 532. 

29. Bpt. Supt. Com. Schs., 1871, p. xxvi. 

30. Ibid., 1870, p. xiii. 



PENNSYLVANIA 177 

fused to comply with it, and educated in county or district 
homes provided for the purpose, the parent, if financially able, 
paying the necessary expenses. 31 Such a measure would be 
quite different, Mr. Wiekersham held, from the undemocratic 
compulsory education of Europe, but would be "a kind of 
compulsory education in consonance with our American ideas 
of the functions of republican government and the sacredness 
of the family relation." 32 

Throughout the period of his service as State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, Mr. Wiekersham continued to discuss 
the evils of non-attendance. He was unable to give anything 
more satisfactory than estimates as to the number of children 
out of school but was sure conditions were not improving and 
that legislative action had become necessary. He framed a 
bill intended to provide for the maintenance and education of 
poor and neglected children, thousands of whom were now to 
be found in the county almshouses, but it could muster barely 
eighty votes in the House. 33 His successor, Mr. E. E. Higbee, 
dropped the fight Mr. Wiekersham had been waging, saying 
in his first report, "We have very serious misgivings as to the 
propriety of any strictly compulsory law and are unwilling 
at this time to urge the passage of any such law upon the 
legislature." 34 Later, as he became more familiar with con- 
ditions, he accepted the principle of state interference. 

In 1885 the employment of children had been restricted in 
and about coal mines, 35 but no legal authority could bring 
them, thus released from work, into the schools. In 1886 the 
chief of the bureau of industrial statistics, J. E. McCamant, 
gave considerable attention to the working and educational 
conditions of children, examining available statistical matter, 
making many personal inspections, and gathering data through 



31. Ibid., 1873, p. xxiv. 

32. Ibid., 1874, p. xiii. It is difficult to distinguish between the undemo- 
cratic compulsory education to which Dr. Wiekersham objects and the form 
which he is willing to admit as in harmony with American ideals. 

33. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., 1880, pp. xvii, xix. 

34. Ibid., 1881, p. xi. 

35. Laws, 1885, Nos. 169, 170. No boy under twelve, no woman or girl of 
any age, was to be employed in bituminous coal mines, and no boy under 
ten, and no woman or girl, in or about the outside structure or workings, 
while in and about anthracite mines the age limit was two years higher. 



178 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

responsible agents. According to the census of 1880, 72,441 
children between ten and fifteen years of age were employed 
in the state. Mr. McCamant contended that at least 125,000 
children of the ages indicated were employed. False returns 
had been made, he thought, by both parents and employers. 
He himself had found children only seven years of age in fac- 
tories after having been assured by the management that none 
under thirteen were employed. He held that not less than 
200,000 children were growing to years of maturity in ignor- 
ance. ' ' If the privilege of education is refused, ' ' he said, ' ' the 
general safety requires that it be made compulsory. ' ' 36 

By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, labor every- 
where had grown much more powerful. Its program in nearly 
all the northern states had come to include a demand for en- 
forceable laws restricting the labor of children and providing 
for their education. In 1887 there was an active campaign 
for effective legislation in Pennsylvania. A law was passed 
which prohibited the employment of children under twelve in 
any mill, manufactory, or mine. 37 The measure was somewhat 
broader than that which it displaced, though it was not en- 
forceable and probably was not intended to be. Barnard says 
of it. "After so many years of trial, in which the utter worth- 
lessness of such laws had been demonstrated, one does not 
know whether to charge the legislators with stupidity or in- 
sincerity." 38 

The forces in favor of stronger protective measures for 
children, stimulated rather than discouraged by their partial 
failure in 1887, effected a strong organization and again went 
before the Assembly in 1889. Though opposed by a powerful 
and skillful lobby, a law was secured which, although un- 
satisfactory in many respects, was provided with some of the 
machinery essential to enforcement. 39 Its most important pro- 
visions were: 



36. Bpt. Bu. Indust. Stat., 1886, pp. 38-50. It is instructive to observe that 
the pressure which resulted at last in a compulsory attendance law came 
largely from forces not in direct connection with education. 

37. Laws, 1887, No. 172. 

38. Child Labor Legislation in Penn., p. 54. 

39. Penn. Laws, 1889, No. 243. 



PENNSYLVANIA 179 

1. No child under twelve was to be employed in any factory 
or mercantile establishment employing ten or more women and 
children. 40 

2. No minor was to be employed for more than sixty hours 
in one week. 

3. Employers were required to keep a register containing 
the name, birthplace, age, and residence of each employee 
under sixteen. 

4. The statement of age and date and place of birth was 
to be supported by the affidavit of parent or guardian, or if 
none, by the child himself. 

5. The governor was directed to appoint a factory inspector 
who in turn was to appoint not more than six deputy in- 
spectors, half of whom were to be women. The inspectors were 
given authority to visit and inspect all shops and factories em- 
ploying women and children, to enforce the act, and to prose- 
cute in case of violation. 

This measure was obviously faulty. Proof of age was en- 
tirely inadequate; nothing was said about education; it did 
not protect children in mines; the great numbers of small 
factories and mercantile establishments were left free to em- 
ploy a child of any age; the number of inspectors was not 
sufficient. But the law had within it possibilities of develop- 
ment, and it may be regarded as a step forward in the pro- 
tection of childhood. The inspectors went to work at once, and 
while there were difficulties in enforcement, many children 
under twelve were found and dismissed. There were others 
clearly under age but certified by parents as twelve or more who 
could not be dismissed without first proving that the affidavit 
was false, a very difficult thing to do. 41 The courts and pro- 
secuting attorneys were very tender with employers. It was 
extremely difficult for an inspector to get a case before the 
court, and when he succeeded in doing so he was often made 
to feel that the judge was unfriendly to the law. Not in- 
frequently cases were dismissed for lack of evidence, even when 
the testimony as to the violation of the law was positive and 
clear. 42 Yet the law was enforced in a sufficient number of 



40. The law of 1849 forbade the employment in textile mills of children 
under thirteen, but as it was never enforced the dropping off of one year 
can scarcely be called a backward step. 

41. Bu. of Indust. Stat., 1891, E, p. 83. 

42. Ibid., 1892, F, pp. 4, 5, 8. 



180 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

cases to bring upon the inspectors the criticism of excessive 
severity, though at the same time labor unions were accusing 
them of being too lenient, even derelict in their duties. 43 These 
criticisms indicate that the law was being administered with 
some regard to industrial and social conditions. 

Attempts were made to bring all children below the legal 
working age into the schools. In the decade, 1880 to 1890, the 
population of the state had increased nearly 25 per cent, in 
the cities almost 43 per cent, but the increase in school attend- 
ance had been but 11 per cent. 44 Superintendent Waller as- 
sumed a much more positive attitude toward compulsory at- 
tendance than had his predecessors in office. He urged that 
Pennsylvania join the twenty-seven states and territories al- 
ready making some compulsory provision for education, say- 
ing, apparently as a climax to his argument, "Even Wiscon- 
sin, though she repealed the Bennet law, is to-day compelling 
the attendance of all children of school age." 45 Superin- 
tendent Schaeffer, who in 1893 began his long career as head 
of the public school system, was not at first favorable to a 
compulsory law. Like Superintendent Wickersham, he held 
that public sentiment should first be made favorable to such 
legislation. Like him, also, he urged a school census in order 
that it might be determined how many children were actually 
out of school and what obstacles must be removed to secure 
their regular attendance. 46 He also regarded it as impracti- 
cable to compel children to attend school in such quarters as 
still served many districts for school houses: "To speak of 
forcing children into such school rooms and surroundings by 
a compulsory law makes one think of Herod, who slaughtered 
the innocents at Bethlehem." 47 He held that there were 
economic conditions which would prevent the successful en- 
forcement of such a law and cautioned against measures which 
would keep boys, who eventually must be wage-earners, too 



43. Ibid., p. 4. 

44. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., 1891, p. x. 

45. Ibid., 1892, p. viii. In 1891 and 1893 compulsory attendance bills had 
passed both houses but were vetoed by Governor Eobert E. Pattison. 

46. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., 1893, p. vii. 

47. Ibid., 1894, p. iv. 



PENNSYLVANIA 181 

long out of the industries, 48 but suggested the modification of 
the child labor law so as to require three or four months school- 
ing each year for all working children under fifteen. 

However, the movement toward compulsory school attend- 
ance was under way, and on May 16, 1895, a law was passed 
requiring children between the ages of eight and thirteen to 
attend school for at least sixteen weeks each year. 49 The 
measure was amended in 1897, 50 requiring that attendance 
should begin at the opening of the term unless otherwise 
ordered by the board, providing for a more careful enumera- 
tion of pupils, 51 extending the upper age limit to sixteen, un- 
less the child was thirteen and regularly employed, and ex- 
tending the annual term of required attendance to 70 per cent 
of the school year. 

Enforcement of the compulsory attendance law was left 
wholly to the local boards. On the whole its reception by 
school officials was cordial, 52 such opposition as developed be- 
ing local rather than general. Certain farming communities 
were openly hostile. They maintained that they must not be 

48. Compare with argument in Connecticut, in 1885, supra, p. 101. 

49. Laws, 1895, No. 53. Gov. Daniel H. Hastings prefaced his signature to 
this bill by a lengthy explanation, as if to shift responsibility for what he 
evidently believed to be, at the best, doubtful legislation. He said : 

"By giving my approval to this measure, there will appear upon our 
statute books for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth a com- 
pulsory educational law. 

"The General Assembly in the sessions of 1891 and 1893 passed a com- 
pulsory educational act somewhat similar to the present measure, each of 
which met with executive disapproval. There appears to be throughout the 
Commonwealth a general desire for such a law. I have not received a single 
protest from any citizen against the bill so far as I recollect. The unanim- 
ity with which it was passed by the Legislature as well as the large number 
of requests made upon me to sign it, clearly indicate the general desire on 
the part of the people for a compulsory educational law. Under the condi- 
tions, I am convinced that I should not obtrude any individual judgment 
which I may have on this question of public policy. The measure provides 
for compulsory education in perhaps the least objectional form to those who 
oppose it on principle, and offends as little against the personal rights of 
the citizen as possible. I, therefore, approve the bill, but, if by experience, 
the expectations of the people are not realized, future legislation will doubt- 
less meet their demands." — P. L., 1895, No. 53. 

50. Laws, 1897, No. 248. 

51. In 1896, after twenty-five years of urging by school authorities, a school 
census was provided for. It was not adequate, nor has a complete school 
census, state-wide in scope, as yet been established. 

52. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., 1897, pp. 17, 19, 42. 



182 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

deprived of the services of their young children in the labor 
of home and farm, and more particularly they resented inter- 
ference by the state in what they regarded as their parental 
rights. Superintendent Schaeffer, commenting upon this, said : 
"A quarter of a century ago similar sentiments were heard 
from the lips of prominent school officials and were applauded 
at educational meetings. To-day, very different views pre- 
A'ail." Again, "The argument used to justify farmers for not 
complying with the law will sound strange in the next 
century." 53 

Meanwhile, some advance had been made in child labor legis- 
lation. The number of forbidden industries had been in- 
creased; 54 the lower age limit was advanced from twelve to 
thirteen, and the law was made to apply in all establishments 
employing five women or children, instead of ten, as former- 
ly. 55 The maximum working day was increased at this time 
from ten hours to twelve, but the week was to be no longer 
than sixty hours. These changes were in the line of progress 
or ease in enforcement, and were based on recommendations 
growing out of the actual administration of the law. The in- 
spectors, now increased to twelve besides the chief, were more 
nearly able to cover the field, and few children without the 
required evidence of age were found. It was clear to the field 
workers, however, that many no more than ten or eleven years 
old were holding such papers. Not only were parents swear- 
ing falsely to secure employment for their children, but nota- 
ries were issuing certificates to those under the legal age simply 
for the small fees obtainable. 56 As a safeguard against the 
lying affidavit, the chief inspector urged that certificates of 
age be issued by the school authorities. This degree of co- 
operation between industrial and educational forces was not 
to be reached until 1905, but in 1897 it was provided that all 
children between thirteen and sixteen not able to read and 
write in the English language should attend some school six- 

53. IUd., 1898, p. iv. 

54. Laws, 1893, No. 244 ; Laws, 1897, No. 148. 

55. All restrictions as to the number of persons to be employed in order to 
bring an establishment under the law were dropped in 1897. 

56. Bpt. Fac. Insp., 1894, p. 9. 



PENNSYLVANIA 183 

teen weeks each year before they could be employed in the 
restricted industries. As evidence of school attendance the 
illiterate youth was to present a certificate signed by a teacher 
stating that the attendance requirements had been met. Such 
was the beginning of legalized cooperation between school and 
industry in this state, not extensive, to be sure, and to be tem- 
porarily abandoned in 1901, yet giving some promise of future 
development. 

The various laws intended to protect children were far from 
ideal at the close of the century. Illiterate children might 
now be forced from the shop, factory, and store, but if over 
thirteen they could not be required to attend school. Any boy 
of twelve might legally be employed in the bituminous mines 
and while some of the illiterates dismissed from illegal em- 
ployment entered schools, others took places in or about the 
mines. 57 But comparisons, now possible through the records 
of the factory inspector, give evidence of progress. In 1890 
ten per cent of the employees of establishments subject to in- 
spection were children under sixteen years of age. At the 
close of the decade, less than five per cent were under sixteen. 
Many establishments had given up employing children because 
of the trouble in keeping the required register and looking 
after age and attendance certificates. 58 

In the year 1901 the legislature undertook to make some 
alterations in the compulsory attendance law of 1895, already 
rendered somewhat confusing by amendments. 59 The attorney 
general ruled that this law repealed all the previous legislation, 
thus clearing the field and simplifying administration. 60 The 
more important provisions of the new law were as follows: 

1. All children between eight and thirteen years of age 
were to attend, for the entire session, some school where the 
common English branches were taught; all between thirteen 
and sixteen were to so attend unless able to read and write 
English intelligently, and regularly employed. 

2. Exemption from the penalties of the law might be grant- 
ed to those who lived more than two miles from a school and 



57. Ept. Fac. Insp., 1899, p. 5. 

58. Ibid., 1900, p. 7. 

59. Laivs, 1901, No. 335. 

60. Bpt. Supt. Pw&. Inst., 1901, pp. vii, viii. 



184 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

to those who were prevented from attending by "mental, 
physical, or other urgent reasons. ' ' School boards were author- 
ized to reduce the period of compulsory attendance to not less 
than seventy per cent of the full session of the public schools. 

3. The penalty upon teacher or parent for failure to carry 
out the provisions of the law was, for the first offense, a fine 
of not over two dollars or a jail sentence of not to exceed two 
days; for subsequent offenses the fine was not to exceed five 
dollars and the prison sentence was not to exceed five days. 

4. Attendance officers were required in city districts, and 
permitted elsew _ here. 

5. Enforcement was left entirely to local school author- 
ities, but the state superintendent was given power to with- 
hold one-fourth of the state appropriation in case any district 
failed to enforce the law. 

In the same year the child labor law was subjected to 
changes not, on the whole, in the direction of progress. 61 The 
slight connection with the schools made in 1897 was dis- 
continued, and instead of the schooling certificate signed by a 
teacher formerly required of illiterates between thirteen and 
sixteen, the issuing officer was to examine all applicants for 
working papers as to ability to read and write. 62 Naturally, 
the examination was a farce. If the child could stumble 
through a simple selection such as a third grade child should 
handle with ease, and then sign his name to the application, 
the requirement of the ability to "read and write simple 
sentences in the English language" was regarded as met, and 
a certificate was issued, provided the child was able to pay 
the twenty-five cents which the wretched system required. 63 

Though it was generally understood that politics had en- 
tered very definitely into the child labor situation, the field 
work was carried forward with increasing vigor. Employers, 
aldermen, and notaries had been prosecuted and fined for 
infraction of the law, 64 and nearly 3000 children in a single 
year had been found illegally employed and dismissed. 65 In 



61. Laws, 1901, No. 206. 

62. Certificates could be issued by magistrates, aldermen, justices, and 
notaries. 

63. Barnard, Fac. Leg. in Venn., pp. 97, 147. 

64. Bpt. Fac. Insp., 1902, p. 10 ; 1903, p. xii. 

65. It is reported that 65 per cent of all the children between thirteen and 
sixteen at work in the restricted industries in 1903 were employed illegally, 
mostly with faulty certificates or with none at all. Ibid, p. iv. 



PENNSYLVANIA 185 

1903 Mr. J. C. Delaney was made Chief Factory Inspector. At 
once he instituted an inquiry to determine the extent of illegal 
child labor in the state. He satisfied himself that charges to 
the effect that the factories and workshops were crowded with 
under-age children had been made without much basis. Of 
3243 children found illegally employed in 1904 only 180 were 
under thirteen. A large proportion of the violations discovered 
was due to the inadequate system of employment certificates 
in use, and he prepared a bill to advance the requirements 
which he proposed to lay before the legislature for approval. 66 
But new forces now entered the field. The Pennsylvania Child 
Labor Committee was organized in 1904, bringing together 
various interests concerned in the welfare of children. An in- 
vestigation was made during the summer which revealed the 
need for closely cooperating child labor and school attendance 
laws. 67 On the basis of information gathered, a bill was pre- 
pared, the most expert legislative drafters available being con- 
sulted. It is said that the bill was redrafted twenty-two times 
in an effort to embody in an enforceable measure the following 
essential standards: 68 

1. A true age limitation to be established through certifi- 
cates based on recorded evidence rather than on affidavits. 

2. The prohibition of night work for all under sixteen. 

3. The protection of children in all commercial and in- 
dustrial pursuits. 

The bill met with strong opposition, even some who were 
favorable to advance being opposed to certain of its features. 
The chief factory inspector was not pleased with interference 
with his plans, and compromises with his forces were neces- 
sary, but finally, after a long campaign, the bill, considerably 
modified, was passed. 69 



66. Rpt. Fac. Insp., 1904, p. 6. Unofficial investigators report many under 
age children at work at this time. Example, Kellogg Durland, in OutlooJc, 
Vol. LXXIV, p. 124ff. 

67. First Annual Report, National Child Labor Committee, pp. 5, 6. 

68. Barnard, op. cit., p. 99. 

69. Laws, 1905, No. 226. The secretary of the National Child Labor Com- 
mittee, Professor Samuel McCune Lindsay, then of the University of Penn- 
sylvania, now of Columbia, was very active in the interests of this bill, and 
by those in intimate touch with the movement was given large credit for 
its passage. 



186 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

The law of 1905, though a compromise, was an improvement 
over the preceding one in the following respects: 

1. The minimum age at which a child could be employed 
was raised to fourteen. 

2. Night work for minors under sixteen and for women was 
forbidden except when necessary to prevent waste of materials. 

3. Employment certificates could be issued only by school 
authorities or a factory inspector. 

4. Adequate proof of age and evidence of physical fitness 
to perform the work proposed was required. 

Chief Delaney did not approve the law, though it brought 
him a salary of $5,000. He had favored the old form of em- 
ployment certificate issued by magistrates, aldermen, justices, 
and notaries, even though he himself had found some of these 
officials notoriously corrupt and had prosecuted them success- 
fully for issuing illegal certificates. He did not like to see 
the employment certificates in the hands of the school superin- 
tendents. " However well this change may have looked in 
theory," he said, "in practice it has proved a lamentable 
failure." 70 Some superintendents, he reported, refused to per- 
form their duty because there was no fee; others could not 
understand the law. During vacation, when the superintend- 
ents were not always accessible, the deputy factory inspectors 
were obliged to neglect their other duties to issue employment 
certificates. "In some districts the conditions could not have 
been worse," he said, "had the school officers conspired to ob- 
struct the parents and the employers of children in their law- 
given rights." 71 

The new law was not well enforced even in the short time 
it was permitted to remain operative. Notaries, justices, and 
others began to issue certificates on simple affidavits, exactly 
as before, nor would they stop until several had been prosecut- 
ed by the department of factory inspection. 72 But in October 
the portions of the law dealing with physical and educational 
requirements and proof of age were declared unconstitutional, 



70. Bpt. Fac. Insp., 1906, p. 14. 

71. Ibid. Opposition on the part of a certain element to entrusting the 
issuance of working papers to the educational authorities has been apparent 



in other states 

72. Barnard, op. cit., p. 146. 



PENNSYLVANIA 187 

first in the anthracite law, later in the factory act. 73 There 
was nothing for the department of factory inspection to do 
but to carry forward their work on the old basis. Barnard 
said: 

"The old-time scandalous condition of affairs which pre- 
vailed before the new law went into effect is restored. The 
old lying affidavit, with the accompanying farcical test of the 
applicant's ability to read simple sentences and write his own 
name, and with virtually no physical test, is once again in 
effect." 74 

Chief Delaney at once began to urge early legislation to re- 
lieve what was clearly an intolerable situation, taking an oc- 
casional thrust at those who had been active in the legislative 
struggle of 1904-1905 by demanding a "practical" law rather 
than "rash legislation" advocated by "professional child labor 
agitators." 75 Doubtless he sincerely desired to keep children 
out of the forbidden industries, but he understood only the old 
political methods of securing legislation. 

In declaring unconstitutional the educational provisions of 
the child labor law the courts had struck at the most vital 
element of legal defense which the state had been painfully 
erecting between the child and the industrial forces which 
threatened his proper development. An attempt was made to 
relieve the situation by authorizing attendance officers to enter 
any place where gainful occupations were carried on to see if 
children were illegally employed. 76 The age of required at- 
tendance was raised at this time, bringing labor and attend- 
ance laws once more into harmony in this particular. The im- 
portance of close attention to the enforcement of these laws 
was urged by the state superintendent of public instruction, 
but there was no general response on the part of school of- 
ficials. 77 Truant officers were unwilling to exercise effectively 

73. Collett vs. Scott, Oct. 13, 1905; decision sustained by Superior Court 
Mar. 12, 1906; also, decisions of Attorney General, and of Judge Staake, 
Bpt. Fac. Insp., 1906, pp. 14, 15. 

74. Barnard, op. cit., p. 153. The justice of these decisions was frankly 
questioned by well-informed critics. For example, see Charities, May 5, 
1906, p. 189. 

75. Bpt. Fac. Insp., 1906, p. 15. 

76. Laws, 1907, No. 241. 

77. Bpt. Supt. Tub. Inst., 1907, p. viii. 



188 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

the power given them in 1907, and there appears to have been 
no cooperation between them and the inspectors. 78 

A real advance was made in the year 1909 in the enactment 
of an excellent child labor law, including the best provisions 
of the discredited measure of 1905 safeguarded and brought 
clearly within the constitution. 79 As never before in Pennsyl- 
vania, the various interests were united in backing this 
measure. The Department of Factory Inspection, the State 
Federation of Women's Clubs, the Pennsylvania and the 
National Child Labor Committees, the Consumers' League, 
Federated Labor, and other less conspicuous organizations lent 
their united influence to the pending measure which, on April 
29, 1909, received the approval of Governor Edwin S. Stuart, 
and went into operation January 1, 1910. The essential features 
of the new law were as follows : 

1. Minors under eighteen were not to be employed in 
dangerous occupations. 

2. Minors over fourteen "able to read and write the English 
language intelligently, and physically qualified," might be em- 
ployed in mercantile establishments and factories under proper 
conditions of safety as prescribed by the Chief Factory In- 
spector. (It is interesting to note that this clause is positive 
and permissive, rather than negative and prohibitive.) 

3. No boy under sixteen and no girl under eighteen was to 
be employed more than ten hours in a day nor more than 58 
in a week, nor before six in the morning nor after nine at 
night, except that in manufacturing processes requiring con- 
tinuous operation boys over fourteen might work at night, but 
not more than nine hours of the twenty-four, if under sixteen. 

4. No child under sixteen was to be employed in the listed 
industries unless he presented an employment certificate as 
provided; such certificate to be kept on file by the employer 
and made readily available to inspectors. The certificate once 
issued became the property of the child and on termination of 
employment it was to be returned to him. 

5. All working papers were to be issued by the superin- 
tendent or supervising principal of the public schools, or there 
being no such official, by the secretary of the board of educa- 
tion, subject to the following provisions: 

a). If the child had recently attended a private or parochial 
school, the superintendent, principal, teacher, or secretary 

78. Bpt. Fac. Insp., 1909, p. 7. 

79. Laws, 1909, No. 182. 



PENNSYLVANIA 189 

might issue the certificate, but he was required to file each 
month with the proper public school official a copy of every 
certificate issued. 

b). As evidence of age there was required, if obtainable, a 
birth certificate, a baptismal certificate, a passport, or some 
other official or religious record of age, or a duly attested 
transcript of such document. But if documentary evidence of 
age could not be secured, the issuing officer might accept the 
affidavit of parent or guardian. 

c). All the necessary blanks and forms were to be provided 
by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

6. The penalty for the illegal employment of a minor was, 
for the first offense, a fine of from ten to twenty-five dollars 
or ten days in jail or both ; for subsequent offenses, not more 
than fifty dollars or ninety days in jail, or both fine and 
imprisonment. 

The new legislation, bringing the school and labor interests 
more closely together and recognizing the unity of the ends 
sought, was cordially endorsed by both the Department of In- 
spection, 80 and by the Department of Education, the fact that 
employment certificates were now to be issued solely by those 
in charge of the schools being particularly gratifying to the 
latter. It was anticipated that uniformity in this important 
detail would render enforcement far less difficult. 81 

As in other states, the courts were inclined to deal leniently 
with parents who violated either the school attendance law or 
the labor law. The records show few prosecutions, and even 
in cases of conviction fines were likely to be remitted because 
of the poverty of the offenders. 82 Neither were prosecutions 
against employers numerous. As a rule no action would follow 
a single offense, and though about 18,000 manufacturing plants 
were visited in a single year, there were less than a dozen 
prosecutions for violation of the child labor. law. 83 It appears 
that the attendance law was not really enforced, but was per- 
mitted to operate so far as the sentiment of the various com- 
munities was favorable. 

Forces were at work, however, which were eventually to 



80. Bpt. Fac. Insp., 1908, p. 13. 

81. Ept. Supt. of Pub. Inst., 1909, p. 8. 

82. Bpt. Chief Factory Inspector, 1908, p. 14. 

83. Ibid., 1912, p. 3. 



190 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

secure for Pennsylvania legislation in behalf of working 
children equal to that in any other state. In 1907 the Governor 
was directed to appoint a commission to revise and codify the 
school laws. A code was prepared, was accepted by the legis- 
lature in 1909, but failed to receive executive approval. With 
minor changes it was presented again in 1911 and duly enacted 
into law. This code eliminated the contradictions and obscur- 
ities of the old educational legislation, and gave the state a 
school law both simple and progressive. It made provision 
for agricultural, industrial, and other forms of vocational 
education, made minor advances in the attendance require- 
ments, and established compulsory medical inspection. A 
State Board of Education of six members was created; the 
board members to be appointed by the governor, to serve with- 
out pay, and half the number always to be experienced educat- 
ors. The governor appointed as the first board of education 
the gentlemen who had drawn up the code and labored so 
faithfully for its adoption, thus insuring a sympathetic in- 
terest in the new educational program. There followed rapidly 
other legislation touching the interests of working children. 
Almost at once it was made obligatory upon districts to es- 
tablish elementary evening schools for children above fourteen 
who were employed during the day, provided parents of 
twenty-five or more prospective pupils made application for 
the same. 84 Districts were also required to provide manual 
training evening schools on petition of seventy-five or more 
taxpayers. 

Two years later legislation was enacted defining vocational, 
industrial, and agricultural education, and providing state aid 
up to two-thirds of the sum spent by any district "for in- 
struction in practical subjects and in such related technical 
and academic subjects as may be necessary to complete well- 
rounded courses of training." 85 The work was required to be 
given in approved industrial schools or departments, and the 
state aid received by any one district could not exceed five 
thousand dollars. Within a year the board was able to put 
state-aided work under way in twenty-one districts, distributed 

84. Laws, 1911, No. 401. 

85. Laws, 1913, No. 138. 



PENNSYLVANIA 191 

among one-fourth the counties of the state. 86 Three types of 
industrial schools were supported, day, evening-, and part-time 
or continuation schools. 87 

The same legislature which inaugurated state support of in- 
dustrial education defeated a bill intended to afford more ad- 
equate protection to working children. Perhaps it more than 
redeemed itself, however, by enacting a law which provided 
for a complete reorganization of the methods of administering 
the industrial laws of the state. A Department of Labor and 
Industry was created, having as its head a Commissioner of 
Labor and Industry with four associates, one an employer, one 
a wage earner, and one a woman, all appointed by the governor 
for terms of four years, and constituting an Industrial Board. 
This board was given power to investigate industrial condi- 
tions, to enforce the laws relating to the department, to make 
and enforce rules and regulations for the application of these 
laws, and to determine standards within the limits of the law, 
for particular industries. 88 Within the department are the 
necessary bureaus including a bureau of factory inspection. 
At its organization, provisions were made for fifty-eight in- 
spectors, women, physicians, and engineers being included in 
the number. The state is divided into suitable districts, and 
the inspectors are under orders to visit, as frequently as pos- 
sible, all places where labor, subject to state control is 
employed. 

Three measures, enacted in the spring of 1915, served to 
round out the system of industrial education, adding the com- 
pulsory feature essential to any scheme intended to reach and 
hold children obliged to leave the regular day school for em- 
ployment. One of these laws created a bureau of vocational 
education within the Department of Public instruction, pro- 
viding for two divisions, one of agricultural and one of in- 
dustrial education. 89 Secondly, a State Employment Bureau 
was created within the department of labor and industry. 
This bureau, through its central office at the capitol and its 



86. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., 1914, p. 7. 

87. Ibid. 

88. Laws, 1913, No. 267. 

89. Laws, 1915, No. 162. 



192 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

branch offices, is to cooperate with bureaus of vocational train- 
ing and placement which may be established by local educa- 
tional authorities in the interests of children between fourteen 
and sixteen years of age. Directors of branch bureaus are re- 
quired by law to provide for the registration of children, to 
assist them in the selection of suitable vocations, and to co- 
operate with school principals in their proper placement. 

The third measure, the one of chief significance, is known as 
the Cox child labor law. It is an advanced piece of legislation 
bringing Pennsylvania into position to assume leadership 
among the states distinguished for the protection and school- 
ing of their children. It includes in its requirements the most 
efficient methods of certificating working children and of pro- 
tecting them in employment and provides that all between 
fourteen and sixteen must attend continuation classes for at 
least eight hours a week during the time the public schools 
are in session. 90 In almost every respect the law met the stand- 
ards then set by the ideal child labor law; it also recognized 
more clearly than is usually the case the common problems of 
school and industry. Following are some of the most import- 
ant provisions: 

1. The act does not apply to children employed in agricul- 
ture or domestic service. 

2. Children between fourteen and sixteen may not be em- 
ployed in industry other than agriculture or domestic service 
unless they attend school during that period for eight hours 
per week, or for a time equivalent to eight hours per week, 
for the time the public schools are in session. 91 

3. Hours of labor for such children may not exceed nine 
per day nor fifty-one per week, including the eight hours de- 
voted to schooling. 

4. Prerequisite to employment is an employment certificate 
issued by the school authorities to children who have finished 
the sixth grade in school, who present a written promise of 
employment, adequate proof of age, and who, by a careful 
medical examination at the hands of a physician employed by 
the school board, are found physically fit for the employment 

90. Ibid., No. 177. 

91. Before a child between fourteen and sixteen may leave school to engage 
in farm or domestic employment, he must secure from the local board of 
education a leaving permit which is granted only on condition that he has 
completed the first six grades. 



PENNSYLVANIA 193 

proposed. The certificate must be sent to the employer by the 
issuing officer through the mail, and at termination of employ- 
ment must be returned in the same manner to the office of issue. 

5. Vacation employment certificates may be issued, but 
under precisely the same conditions as regular certificates ex- 
cept that the school record is not required. 

6. Employment dangerous to health or morals is forbidden. 

7. No boy under sixteen and no female minor may be em- 
ployed before six in the morning or after eight in the evening. 

8. The required schooling may be obtained in any school 
approved by the state superintendent and designated by the 
local board of school directors. It must be within reasonable 
access of the place of employment, and the school hours must 
not be earlier than eight in the morning nor later than five 
in the afternoon, nor on Saturday. 

9. In case there is not effective enforcement of the school- 
ing requirements in any district, the state superintendent is to 
report to the state board of education; this body is then author- 
ized to appoint attendance officers in the delinquent district, 
enforce the law, and charge the salary and expenses of the 
officers to the district, such sum being deducted from the dis- 
trict's apportionment of state school funds. 

10. The commissioner of labor and industry and his in- 
spectors, the attendance officers of the various districts, and 
local police are charged with the enforcement of the law. 

11. The penalty for violation is a fine of not less than ten 
nor more than two hundred dollars, imprisonment for not 
more than ten days, or both fine and imprisonment at the dis- 
cretion of the court. 

There was, of course, considerable opposition to the passage 
of this law, with prophecy as to its dire effects upon the work- 
ing child, upon those dependent upon his earnings, and upon 
industry. The new requirements were not to become operative 
until the first of January, 1916, allowing child-employing in- 
dustries three-fourths of a year to readjust themselves. Many 
manufacturers, accustomed to the ten hour day, held that it 
would be impossible to employ children for nine hours while 
adults continued for the ten hour shift, and as a result 30,000 
or 40,000 children would be thrown out of employment on the 
first of January, 1916. Some employers did not wait for the 
end of the year, but began to discharge children, filling their 
places with workers above sixteen years of age. It was held 
that thousands of children who had secured working papers 



194 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

under the old law but who had not completed the first six 
grades of the elementary school would now be forced to give 
up their positions and attend the common schools already over- 
crowded and poorly prepared to serve the needs of these young 
workers who would naturally come unwillingly to the enforced 
lessons. 

To the last objection final answer was soon given by the 
Attorney General, who ruled that the law was not retroactive ; 
that minors who had secured employment certificates prior to 
January 1, 1916, held valid permission to work and that 
whether they had met the new educational requirement or not 
they might legally continue in employment provided they at- 
tended the continuation school until sixteen years of age. 92 

Some communities did not take the law seriously and made 
no preparation to care for employed children. 93 Some held 
that the continuation school was not mandatory and delayed 
action until they found that they were liable to lose their share 
of the state school fund by non-compliance. 94 But as the time 
approached for the law to go into effect the opposition tended 
to decrease. Many employers prepared to have the continu- 
ation classes held in suitable rooms in their own plants, and 
school men grew more enthusiastic in their support. 95 The 
governor of the state, long distinguished as a wise and pro- 
gressive educator, supported the new educational program en- 
thusiastically, saying : 

"I have given years of thought to the problem of providing 
a type of education which will enable the youthful toilers of 
this great commonwealth to learn while they earn. The result 
of that thought and investigation is embodied in this child 
labor law." 96 

He used his influence among school authorities, employers, 
and employees to the end that there might be cooperation of 
all forces in a program which would give the state, he said, 



92. Opinion rendered Oct. 26, 1915; supplemented and enlarged Nov. 4, 
1915. 

93. Pittsburg Post, Feb. 2, 1916; editorial. 

94. Beaver Falls Tribune, Nov. 9, 1915. 

95. Philadelphia Public Ledger, Nov. 2, 1915. 

96. Letter; Gov. Martin Brumbaugh, Hanover Herald, Nov. 10, 1915. 



PENNSYLVANIA 195 

"an industrial impetus which will be felt through all the 
generations to come." 

The state board of education was given large power in 
carrying out the educational provisions of the law. The duty 
of organizing and supervising the continuation schools was 
confided by the board to the industrial division of the vocation- 
al bureau, which, for the guidance of the districts, issued a 
bulletin containing a copy of the child labor act, a careful ex- 
planation of its provisions, together with interpretations of 
certain points likely to be misunderstood and the requirements 
of the state board in relation to the continuation schools. 97 It 
was made clear that such schools were to be obligatory upon 
all school districts in the state in which minors between four- 
teen and sixteen were employed in other than agricultural and 
domestic service. The board ruled, however, that a district on 
request might be relieved temporarily of the necessity of es- 
tablishing a continuation school if it was shown that less than 
twenty children were eligible to attend. 98 

By the terms of the law of 1913 a continuation school ap- 
proved by the state board might secure generous state aid. The 
provisions of this law as applied by the board to the new 
schools made it possible for a district to receive from one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars for each teacher 
employed in these schools, as well as fifty per cent per year 
of the actual cost of the equipment necessary to carry forward 
the academic work, provided that no district might receive 
over three thousand dollars. 

After every effort had been made to prepare the state for 
the enforcement of the child labor law and to win the co- 
operation of those most directly affected by it, there remained 
considerable opposition in industrial centers. 99 But on the 
whole there was a feeling of pride in the inauguration of one 
of the most progressive labor and schooling laws to be found 
at that time in America, so the new requirements were met, 
as a rule, in excellent spirit. In many industrial centers con- 



97. Bulletin 5, Bureau of Vocational Education. 

98. Ibid., p. 13. 

99. Editorials in Pittsburg Sun, Jan. 28, 1916, and Pittsburg Dispatch, 
Jan. 31, 1916, are typical. 



196 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

tinuation schools were opened promptly; during the month of 
January, 1916, one hundred and four districts put the work 
under way with more than four hundred classes in operation. 100 
At the end of the school year the bureau on vocational educa- 
tion could report : ' ' We have over three hundred and fifty-one 
continuation schools, attended by over thirty-five thousand 
children. These [schools] have proved successful beyond 
expectation." 101 

It was the desire of the State Board of Education to have 
such an adjustment of work in the continuation schools that 
sixty per cent of the time could be devoted to vocational sub- 
jects and the remainder to academic branches. 102 It was not 
found practical, however, to give so much emphasis to the 
vocational side. A large proportion of the working children 
had left school while in the lower grades. 103 Many of foreign 
parentage had lost the little English learning they possessed 
when they secured their employment certificate under the old 
law. 104 After the first half-year's experience, therefore, it was 
deemed best to emphasize general rather than specific training 
until the operation of the law brings the minimum in academic 
attainment up to the completion, at least, of the six elementary 
grades. 105 It is not intended, however, that the work in these 
schools will tend to conform with that usually given in the 
regular day schools. It is expected that there will be much 
shop work, that vocational information will be given in con- 
nection with both shop and academic work, and that pupils 
will be led ultimately to an intelligent choice of trade or 
calling. 

The city of Pittsburg may be taken as representing, perhaps, 
the best that Pennsylvania has accomplished thus far in the 
administration of the new laws. In some respects the work 
here is doubtless in advance of that to be found in other cities 
of the state. The records show that for several years the child 
labor and compulsory school attendance laws have been en- 



100. Monongahela Times, Feb. 5, 1916. 

101. Bulletin No. 8, Bureau of Vocational Education, p. 8. 

102. Bulletin No. 5, Bureau of Vocational Education, p. 16ff. 

103. Ibid., No. 8, p. 17. 

104. Ibid., p. 36. 

105. Ibid., p. 17. 



PENNSYLVANIA 197 

forced with considerable vigor. From 30,000 to 50,000 cases 
of irregular attendance have been investigated annually since 
1911. 106 An excellent system of home and shop visitation has 
been in operation, offending parents have been prosecuted, 
courts have sustained the truant officers and inspectors, and 
children of school age have had relatively little opportunity 
to avoid the somewhat meager requirements of the law. 107 
School officials, moreover, were prepared to receive the new 
law cordially, for they had been urging legislation of this 
character most earnestly. 108 The city had already established 
industrial and continuation education of various kinds, and 
only awaited a compulsory continuation law to extend its 
benefits to all working children. Early preparation was made, 
therefore, to meet the requirements of the new law. In Janu- 
ary, 1916, additional continuation classes were organized, both 
in school buildings and in quarters provided by employers, 
though attendance was not strictly enforced until late in May, 
practically five months being allowed for employers to adjust 
themselves to the new conditions. 109 At first, vacant rooms in 
various buildings were utilized, and continuation classes were 
organized in about sixty different centers with two half-day 
sessions per week for each child as the prevailing time distribu- 
tion. Later one large building was set aside as a central con- 
tinuation school. Here approximately twelve hundred children 
can be accommodated each week. There are administrative 
offices, shops, and laboratories, the latter being only moderate- 
ly well equipped. 

The attendance officer, to whom the task of issuing employ- 
ment certificates is assigned, has his office in this building, so 
each child seeking working papers must come here, accom- 
panied by his parents. 110 Before an employment certificate is 
issued the principal of the continuation school talks with the 
child and endeavors to persuade him to continue in the regular 



106. Pittsburg School Report, 1912, p. 13; 1914, pp. 32-33, 39. 

107. For illustration, ibid, 1914, pp. 86-87. 

108. Ibid., 1914, p. 89. 

109. See Pittsburg Sun, May 2; Pittsburg Press, May 26, 1916. 

110. The law does not require that a parent appear with a child who is 
applying for an employment certificate; this is an additional safeguard 
imposed by the local school authorities. 



198 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

full-time schools, unless it appears that economic necessity is 
forcing employment. If the child must go to work, an attempt 
is made to adjust his schooling as closely as possible to his 
vocational needs. A vocational guidance secretary has a desk 
in the office of the principal. This officer keeps in close touch 
with the business houses employing children and is prepared 
to direct those who need employment into the most desirable 
of available positions. 

The work of the continuation schools in Pittsburg is not yet 
fully standardized, nor is it carried forward under ideal con- 
ditions. The outstanding fact is that many hundreds of boys 
and girls who under conditions prevailing before 1916 would 
be entirely separated from all educational influences are now 
spending eight hours a week in school under trained and en- 
thusiastic teachers, in work which, though often rather re- 
motely, touches in some respects either the actual employment 
in which they are engaged or the prospective vocation of adult 
life. 111 

There is little difficulty in enforcing the attendance law so 
far as it relates to the employment certificate children. The 
record made in school is considered by the employer, and 
irregularity or misconduct, if at all serious, would result in dis- 
missal from work. This, under the law, would throw the child 
back into the regular day schools, a fate which the average 
boy, once having gone to work, is not able to contemplate 
cheerfully. In a word, the continuation school in Pittsburg is 
a success. Pupils are accepting its requirements in a finer 
spirit than is usually shown by those in the elementary schools. 
While ideal cooperation between labor and education is not 
possible, due to the fact that few are in employment that can 
be considered as in any sense permanent, yet the majority of 

111. In the great industrial city of Pittsburg one might expect to find 
many boys at work in various capacities in the trades or industries which 
later will claim their adult services. But it is not the ease. Few are so 
employed. An examination of the card files in the office of the principal 
of continuation schools reveals the fact that only an occasional lad is 
learning a trade, most being engaged as errand or office boys, drivers, 
unskilled workers, or in other occupations having no outlook into the future. 
It is expected that with the development of the system of vocational educa- 
tion, this unfortunate condition will be overcome, at least in part. 



PENNSYLVANIA 199 

those primarily interested are in favor of the child labor law 
and are supporting the schools. 112 

Throughout the state the law has grown in favor as its value 
has become more apparent. Notwithstanding the prophecy that 
thousands of needy children would be thrown out of employ- 
ment, there were on July 1, 1916, as many minors between 
fourteen and sixteen employed in the various industries as 
there were before the law became effective. 113 There remains 
relatively little opposition to the continuation school, some of 
those who at first thought they could not adjust themselves to 
its program being now enthusiastic in its support. Some em- 
ployers make no deduction in wages for time spent in school ; 
others have offered higher wages, promotion, or other recogni- 
tion for high class work in school. 114 At least ninety con- 
tinuation schools were in operation during the school year 
1920-1921, with an attendance of about 14,500. 115 State and 



112. In May, 1917, Associate Superintendent Baker wrote to all employers 
of continuation school children asking for opinions as to the value of the 
work done and inviting suggestions for its improvement. The writer had 
opportunity to read the replies. In general, employers expressed themselves 
as well satisfied, the following replies from manufacturers being fairly 
typical : 

' ' Personally, I consider the continuation school one of the greatest propo- 
sitions the present board ever worked out." 

"We have seen a distinct improvement in our employees who have at- 
tended or are attending the continuation school." 

"Those who are working and attending the continuation schools are far 
superior to those who do not attend." 

"Continuation school is very much all recht." 

A few were hostile to the entire program. Three replies are selected: 

"Judging from the boys we have employed, the time and expense of 
maintaining the continuation school is thrown away." 

' ' They were just wasting their time. ' ' 

' ' Not well impressed with the work done. ' ' 

A few of the dissatisfied employers suggested night attendance as a solu- 
tion. Specific suggestions for improvement were not infrequent, among 
them being: more work in common branches, practical business 
methods, knowledge of the city, better hand-writing, mechanical drawing, 
more mathematics, more academic work, more manual training, knowledge 
of means and methods of transportation, knowledge of statutes, courtesy, 
honesty, obedience, cleanliness, health and sanitation. 

113. Bulletin, Bureau of Vocational Education, No. 8, p. 18. 

114. Ibid., pp. 19, 46. 

115. Personal report, Attendance Bureau, Mar. 17, 1921. Several other 
cities which, under the law, would be required to maintain continuation 
schools were unable to secure approved teachers. In some communities in 
which there are fewer than twenty employed children continuation classes 
are voluntarily provided and working children required to attend; for 
example, Homestead. 



200 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

national funds, the latter administered under the provisions 
of the Smith-Hughes law, relieve the local financial burden to 
an appreciable extent. 

As might perhaps be expected, the continuation classes are 
quite commonly housed in old buildings poorly adapted to the 
intended purpose. 116 This is most unfortunate, as a large pro- 
portion of these children leave school not so much because they 
must contribute to the family earnings, as because they are 
weary of the type of instruction usually prevailing in the 
elementary schools. The few hours which they spend each 
week under the influences of the continuation school should be 
spent in an environment as attractive and inspiring as it can 
be made. There seems to be a disposition on the part of the 
cities visited to provide more generously for these children. 
It is probably that, as plans are made for the construction of 
junior high school buildings, the needs of continuation classes 
will be given adequate consideration. 117 

In the enforcement of her general compulsory attendance 
laws throughout the state, Pennsylvania is only now moving 
in the direction of efficiency. The legal requirements, not 
radically modified since the enactment of the original law in 
1895, are as follows: 

1. All children between the ages of eight and sixteen must 
attend a day school where the common English branches are 
being taught in the English language. 

2. Attendance must be for the entire time during which 
the public schools are in session, except that in districts of 
the fourth class the local board may reduce the period of com- 
pulsory attendance for children above twelve years of age to 
not less than seventy per cent of the full term. 

3. Children between fourteen and sixteen, having completed 
the sixth grade of the elementary schools, may secure the 
general employment certificates as already described or the 
permits to engage in agricultural or domestic labor. These 
certificates are issued by the school authorities. 

4. Enforcement of the attendance laws rests upon the local 
boards of education. Boards in all but fourth class districts 
are required to employ one or more attendance officers, two or 
more districts uniting for this purpose if they see fit. An at- 



116. A condition by no means peculiar to Pennsylvania. 

117. Lancaster, for example, is looking definitely to such solution. 



PENNSYLVANIA 201 

tendance officer must have an education equivalent, at least, 
to the work of the first eight grades of the public schools. 

5. The penalty upon a parent who fails to keep his child 
in school according to law is, for the first offense, a fine of two 
dollars and costs, for subsequent offenses, five dollars and costs. 
In case of default of payment, the parent may be committed 
to jail for a period not in excess of five days. 

6. Any school official, who wilfully refuses to comply with 
the compulsory attendance provisions is liable to a fine of not 
to exceed twenty-five dollars. If the board of education fails 
to enforce the law, the Superintendent of Public Instruction 
may withhold part or all of the districts' share in the state 
appropriations. 118 

Up to the year 1920 the state did not seriously attempt to 
secure the enforcement of the attendance law. In the pre- 
ceding pages it is made clear that the degree in which children 
were kept in school depended entirely upon the local author- 
ities, usually upon the zeal of the superintendent of schools. 
Enforcement of the child labor laws has been reasonably ef- 
fective for several years, and in the majority of well-organized 
city districts school attendance has been good. As appears to 
be almost universally the case, however, there was serious 
neglect of the law in the country and in the smaller cities and 
towns, as well as in some of the larger industrial centers. The 
Department of Education has now entered upon a serious cam- 
paign to secure the operation of the law in every part of the 
state. Without additional legal machinery, but largely by 
means of administrative powers given it under the law, the 
State Board of Education has provided for a Bureau of At- 
tendance with a director, an office force and five "supervisors 
of attendance," four being women. 119 A system of monthly 
reports from every school in the state has been inaugurated, 
the New York plan being followed in many respects. These 
reports are filed in the office at Harrisburg, are studied by the 
director and supervisors of attendance, and districts which 



118. This power is used very sparingly. The writer has been able to learn 
of but one instance in which it has been applied, a case in Erie county in 
which the sum of $13,000.00 was withheld: "Commonwealth vs. M. T. 
Wilkins." 

119. The director of this Bureau is Mr. W. M. Denison, for some time one 
of the State School Inspectors, widely known throughout Pennsylvania and 
closely in touch with educational conditions. 



202 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

appear to require special assistance are visited. 120 No definite 
data are yet available indicating the number of children which 
the new method of promoting attendance has brought into the 
schools, but public interest has been aroused as never before 
and the supervisors of attendance are confident that very- 
valuable results have already been accomplished. A consider- 
able amount of extra clerical work is thrown upon the teachers 
and school officials who are required to make the monthly re- 
ports. This is resented somewhat, especially by the superin- 
tendents in the larger places, where the need of state assist- 
ance is not felt, yet the evils of non-attendance are so clearly 
recognized that practically all have accepted the additional 
burden and have engaged in a campaign of child accounting 
state-wide in extent. 121 

Pennsylvania admirably illustrates in her own educational 
development the three periods into which the history of the 
public control and education of children divides itself and to 
which reference has been made in an earlier section of this 
study. 122 Though the proprietary founder of the colony held 
advanced ideas as to the function of the state in education, the 
early systems of schools were parochial and philanthropic. 
When public funds began to be used in support of education 
they were applied solely to the maintenance of pauper schools. 
Public interest in the working child began to manifest itself 
here in the earlier decades of the nineteenth century, but pro- 
tective measures were ineffective and compulsory school at- 
tendance was not even attempted until well after most of the 
other northern states had their educational programs well 
under way. Yet notwithstanding delays due to peculiar social 
conditions, and obstructions deliberately placed in the way of 
progress by industrial interests, Pennsylvania has entered upon 
the third stage of universal and compulsory education with a 
system which requires only honest, fearless administration to 
give to the state a position of leadership. 

120. Between Sept. 1, 1920, and Mar. 1, 1921, visits to the number of 420 
were made. 

121. Only two district superintendents in the entire state have failed to file 
reports as requested. 

122. Introduction, p. 2. 



CHAPTER VIII 
WISCONSIN 

Prior to the year 1909 there is little in the history of her 
educational and industrial development to warrant including 
Wisconsin in a group of states selected for such a study as this. 
But in that year a growing recognition of the intimate and 
helpful relations which might be developed between the school 
and the life work of the child led to the establishment of an 
educational policy which, within a few years, made Wisconsin 
a leader in the task of preparing working boys and girls for 
industrial activities. She preceded every other state in the 
inauguration of a comprehensive system of compulsory con- 
tinuation or part-time schools for working children; she has 
adapted her educational program to changing industrial con- 
ditions more promptly and more successfully than has any 
other commonwealth. A consideration, therefore, of the com- 
pulsory features of education in Wisconsin may well be em- 
braced in this study. 

The early educational history of Wisconsin is not essentially 
different from that of the other states of the Northwest Terri- 
tory. In the year 1837 a law was enacted providing for com- 
pulsory schools in every township in which as many as tAventy 
electors had taken residence. 1 For the support of these terri- 
torial schools a pro-rata tax was levied upon patrons, but the 
children of all unable to pay the rates were to be maintained 
in school by means of a general tax. In the year 1849 the 
system of common schools was reorganized under the state 
constitution adopted two years earlier. Schools were now com- 
pulsory and free throughout the state. 

The state system of free schools was scarcely under way be- 
fore the questions of irregularity and lack of attendance began 
to disturb those charged with its administration. Superin- 
tendent Lyman C. Draper, deploring the indifference of both 



1. Bpt. Wis. St. Hist. Soc, p. 338. 

203 



204 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

parents and children to the means of education, suggested com- 
pulsory school legislation as a remedy, but added: "The idea 
of compulsory measures to secure more general attendance is 
not exactly suited to the genius of our free government." 2 

For more than a decade, beginning about the opening of 
the Civil War, state superintendents vied with each other in 
reciting the lamentable state of ignorance into which the youth 
of Wisconsin were falling. For example, in 1861 Superintend- 
ent J. L. Pickard called attention to the fact that a large pro- 
portion of the children of proper school age were receiving 
no instruction except that provided by the "school of the 
street, a school in which every lesson is at war with the vital 
interests of our people, in which pupils make rapid progress 
in disobedience to parents, prevarication, falsehood, obscenity, 
profanity, lewdness, intemperance, petty thievery, larceny, 
burglary, robbery, and murder, whose graduates become a 
prey upon the citizen and a constant tax upon his pocket." 3 

Though Superintendent Pickard was deeply moved by the 
lack of regular attendance, he did not urge legislative inter- 
ference. His successor in office, after making what appears to 
have been a superficial study of the situation, concluded that 
of those who might reasonably be expected to attend school, at 
least 30,000 were out of school altogether, while less than half 
of those actually registered were in daily attendance. 4 To him 
it seemed essential that teachers of higher type and better 
training be secured and that the schools be made more attract- 
ive. 5 It might then be necessary to invoke the power of the 
law in order to bring under educational influences those who 
remained indifferent. He, in common with many other school 
administrators of the time, regarded laws interfering with 
parental control of children as undemocratic, yet he thought 
it might be possible to enact a compulsory attendance law that 
would infringe upon the rights of no one. On this point he 
made no specific recommendations, saying: 

"That those who advocate compulsory education have the 



2. 10th. An. Bpt. Supt. Sch., p. 6. 

3. 13th. An. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., p. 9. 

4. 19th. An. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., p. 11. 

5. 16th. An. Bpt. Supt. Pub. Inst., p. 7. 



WISCONSIN 205 

best interests of society in view, there is no reasonable doubt. 
Whether public opinion demands enactments that shall secure 
it is for the Legislature to consider." 6 

Superintendent A. J. Craig, in 1869 estimated that 100,000 
Wisconsin children were receiving no instruction in the schools. 
He insisted upon legislative action, asserting that unless laws 
were forthcoming which would secure the education of all the 
children, the future historian would be forced to portray "the 
downfall of a once mighty nation which forgot its origin, de- 
rided its, destiny, sold its birthright, and ended its career in 
shame and disgrace." 7 

Governor Lucius Fairchild, not to be outdone by the super- 
intendent, treated the subject of school attendance at length, 
basing his statements upon the figures put forward by the de- 
partment of education and arriving at the same dire conclu- 
sions. He demanded that the legislature take the matter into 
consideration, saying: 

"Is it not our duty to compel the parents of these children 
to give them the advantages of some school system, whereby 
they may be rendered fit to assume the duties of citizenship? 
Has not the state the right to protect itself against evils which 
threaten its safety, its peace, and even its existence?" 8 

He urged the enactment of "such a law as will compel each 
child in the state, of proper age, under ordinary circumstances, 
to attend school a given number of months in each year for a 
reasonable number of years." In his message the following 
year, the governor again urged the legislature to enact a com- 
pulsory attendance law, holding that over fifty thousand 
children were growing up without the training necessary to 
make them intelligent, useful citizens. Many of these, he says, 
in consequence of their ignorance, "will be vagabonds, fitted 
only for prisons, brothels, and poor-houses." 9 

Mr. Samuel Fallows, the successor of Superintendent Craig, 
took a much less radical stand on the question of school at- 
tendance under compulsion. In fact, in his first report he ad- 



6. IUd., p. 43. 

7. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1869, p. 6. 

8. Senate Journal, 1870, appendix, p. 12. 

9. Assembly Journal, 1871, appendix, p. 18. 



206 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

vised definitely against such legislation. 10 But before the end 
of his term of service he appears to have modified his views, 
as he recommended in his final report a law requiring that 
every child should receive "in the public school or elsewhere 
at least the elements of a good common school education." 11 

A bill was introduced in 1873 providing for the attendance 
at public school of all children between the ages of eight and 
fifteen for a period of sixteen weeks each year. This bill was 
indefinitely postponed, but a resolution was adopted asking the 
Superintendent of Public Instruction to "make such investiga- 
tion and inquiries as he may deem proper in relation to the 
best means, whether compulsory or otherwise, to advance the 
cause of education, and report the result of such investigations 
to the next legislature, with such recommendations as he may 
see fit." 12 At this session the legislature enacted a truancy 
law, authorizing cities to establish truancy schools, to which 
habitual truants having no lawful occupation might be com- 
mitted for a period not to exceed two years. 13 

The investigation made by the superintendent in compliance 
with the legislative resolution does not supply a great amount 
of accurate information as to the Wisconsin situation. 14 Mr. 
Fallows concluded that "there were between forty and fifty 
thousand children in the state who did not attend school dur- 
ing the past year." 15 In closing his report he recommended 
a compulsory law much like the unenforceable measure adopted 
by Michigan in 1871 and very generally copied by other states 
and territories during the succeeding decade. 16 

At this period, the sharp line drawn between the proponents 
and opponents of compulsory attendance legislation is illustrat- 
ed on the one hand in the reports and recommendations by 
Governor Fairchild and Superintendents Craig and Fallows, 
and on the other by the conclusions of Superintendent Edward 



10. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1871, p. 40. 

11. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1873, p. 72. 

12. See also Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1873, p. 31. 

13. Laivs of 1873, ch. 276. 

14. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1873, pp. 33-72. 

15. The United States Census of 1870 reports for "Wisconsin 55,441 persons 
over ten years of age unable to write. 

16. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1873, p. 72. 



WISCONSIN 207 

Searing, 1874-1878. 17 The latter stood firmly against the com- 
pulsory movement now receiving considerable support, giving 
very definite reasons for his opposition. He held, first of all, 
that there was no alarming degree of illiteracy in the state, 
calling attention to the fact that by basing their conclusions 
upon the whole number of youth between the ages of four and 
twenty, his predecessors had arrived at unwarranted conclu- 
sions as to the extent of non-attendance. He gave little credence 
to available statistics, and had sought unsuccessfully to ascer- 
tain the real facts. From the incomplete data secured, he con- 
cluded, however, ''that the schools, wherever tolerably ac- 
cessible, are imparting the elements of instruction to nearly 
every healthy child outside the cities and some of the larger 
villages." Contrary to the argument of most writers of the 
time, Mr. Searing held that the public school could not reach 
the children of the poor, the element for whom compulsion was 
particularly urged. Against them, he said, ' ' shame, pride, self- 
respect close and double-lock the doors of the public schools." 
He held that the very excellence of the city schools attended 
by the children of the wealthiest and most intelligent citizens, 
would repel the poor and render the schools of little service to 
them, saying, "The wretchedness of extreme poverty shuns 
companionship with better fortunes, as owls and bats shun the 
light of day." 18 

After arguing that the state was not yet prepared to enforce 
school attendance, even if such a measure were desirable, Mr. 
Searing contended that there was in a compulsory school law 
something "essentially opposed to the genius of our free in- 
stitutions, something essentially un-American," adding, "The 
mere consciousness of the existence of a law compelling the 
attendance of my children would be intolerable. I want no 
statute laws telling me how or when to feed, to dress, or to 
educate my children." Superintendent Searing adds one ele- 
ment to the discussion not yet noticed by his predecessors in 
office by recognizing child labor and by suggesting a method 
of relief far in advance of his time: 



17. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1874, pp. liv-lxvii. 

18. Ibid., p. lxvi. 



208 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

"If cessation from productive labor — even though childish 
labor — be a severe physical hardship, during the months and 
years necessarily devoted to the acquisition of that intelligence 
and culture which fit for good citizenship, then let appropriate 
support be given to child or parent by the society or state that 
is interested in the intelligence of the former." 19 

Superintendent Searing put himself on record as a radical 
opponent of compulsory education. Doubtless, he was regarded 
at the time as a reactionary, yet in certain respects he was de- 
cidedly progressive. He wished to have education adapted to 
the real needs of the children. He saw something of the 
relationship of school and the bread-winning occupations. He 
even justified the state, in actually maintaining the child while 
he was being fitted for larger usefulness. 

In 1879 Wisconsin made her first positive movement in the 
direction of compulsory school attendance, enacting a law 
which required the attendance of all children between seven 
and fifteen years of age upon some public school for a period 
of twelve weeks each year unless excused by the school board 
"for sufficient cause." 20 Apparently the actual enforcement 
of this law was not contemplated. Speaking of it, the state 
superintendent, William C. Whitford, said: 

"It was designed to direct the attention of the people to 
the alarming non-attendance of at least one-third of the 
children upon the schools, to the necessity of using some of the 
features of a compulsory system in remedying this evil, and 
to discover finally the exact provisions of such a system which 
could generally be operated and made efficient." 21 

Unenforceable though the law of 1879 doubtless was, the 
year following brought an increase in the total enrollment in 
the public schools of about 10,000, or nearly two per cent, an 
increase due, in the judgment of the superintendent, to the 
new law. The law was not regarded favorably in all sections 
of the state, however, and in some it was entirely ignored. 22 
The superintendent urged that the requirements be strength- 
ened, and that a clause be added excluding from factories all 



19. Ibid. 

20. Laws of 1879, ch. 121. 

21. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1880, p. xxix. 

22. Wis. Sch. Ept., 1880, p. xxvi. 



WISCONSIN 209 

children under fourteen unless credited with twelve weeks' 
schooling in the preceding year. 23 No action followed immedi- 
ately, and by 1886 the law had demonstrated its weakness to 
such an extent that educational authorities were recommend- 
ing its repeal unless by amendment it could be brought into a 
more satisfactory form. 24 Evidently it had fallen into very 
general neglect, and was used, according to the observation of 
the state superintendent, only "to make it the occasion of 
annoyance of school officers, or of persons against whom there 
is prejudice or animosity." 25 But by far the most bitter 
criticism of the impotent attendance law came from those who 
were charged with the administration of the child labor law. 

Legislation designed to control the employment of young 
children was secured two years before the enactment of the 
first compulsory attendance law. A strong element had opposed 
any restriction of labor, regarding it as an attack upon the 
manufacturer, who here as elsewhere seemed to require very 
tender treatment throughout the nineteenth century. Besides 
the prevailing belief that the labor of children was necessary 
for the successful conduct of certain business, there was the 
deep-seated conviction that any interference with the parent's 
control over his offspring was a violation of the democratic 
spirit of America, an infringement on personal liberty. 26 But 
in 1877 an act was passed forbidding the employment of 
children under twelve years of age, during the school year, in 
factories where conditions were deemed injurious to health. As 
a piece of legislation, this measure was ridiculously inadequate, 
yet it hinted at two essential features in a modern child labor 
law, the health of the child and his education. The law was 
somewhat improved by amendment in 1878, 2T but means of en- 
forcement were not provided, and it was quite generally 
disregarded. 28 

In 1883 the Bureau of Labor Statistics was created and 



23. Ibid. 

24. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1885-86, p. 42. 

25. Ibid. 

26. Am. Acad. Pol. $• Soc. Sci., Vol. XXV. 1905, p. 467. 

27. Laws of 1878, ch. 187. 

28. Am. Acad. Pol. and Soc. Sci., op. cit., p. 468. 



210 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

among other duties the Commissioner was charged with the 
enforcement of the child labor law. 29 A feeble attempt was 
made to ascertain the extent to which the law was violated 
throughout the state, the Commissioner sending out blanks to 
the various factories and workshops for reports. Quite natural- 
ly, very few cases were reported, although on a personal visit 
in Milwaukee some children were discovered who were appar- 
ently employed illegally, "but," writes the Commissioner, "on 
putting leading questions to them and their parents, the in- 
variable answer was that they were past twelve years of age. ' ' 30 
The Commissioner, who evidently did not believe that the law 
should be enforced literally, concluded that there were no 
serious violations, and what there were, he justified on the 
grounds that as much good resulted therefrom as harm, the 
employment being quite respectable and the children working 
by their own choice and anxious to retain their places. 31 Be- 
sides, argued the Commissioner, since there was absolutely no 
attempt to enforce the compulsory attendance law, it would 
be unwise to crowd children out of employment and into idle- 
ness. "It is the unqualified opinion of this Bureau," he said, 
"that children under twelve or fourteen years of age should 
be in school, but if there are no officers to compel them to at- 
tend school, there should be none to force them from respect- 
able and remunerative employment into idleness." 32 

It is not clear that the Commissioner is quite unprejudiced 
in his statements concerning the enforcement of these two 
statutes. In the second biennial report of the bureau he com- 
plains again about the prevailing neglect of the attendance 
requirements : 

"There are about 16,000 officers liable for the enforcement 
of these laws ; and if they would do their duty, I would have 
little or no difficulty in enforcing the act keeping children 
under twelve out of factories and workshops." 33 

Apparently there had been no attempt thus far to render 



29. Laws of Wis., 1883, ch. 319. 

30. Bpt. Bu. Lab. Stat., 1883-84, p. 161. 

31. Ibid., p. 162. 

32. Ibid., p. 165. 

33. Bpt. Bu. Lab. Stat., 1885-86, p. xli. 



WISCONSIN 211 

the school attendance and child labor laws mutually helpful to 
each other. The enforcement of both had been equally neglect- 
ed; they had not attracted sufficient attention to make them- 
selves known even among those whom they were designed to 
serve. 34 But in the later 'eighties both child labor and com- 
pulsory school attendance received increasing attention, ques- 
tions concerning the latter being dragged into politics and 
serving to unseat the dominant party. 

In the year 1885 a factory inspector was appointed. He was 
unable to visit the rapidly developing industrial plants 
frequently enough to insure the enforcement of the legal re- 
quirements, and in 1887 a second inspector was appointed. At 
the same time the factory laws were improved and the labor 
of young children was more closely restricted. 33 

With the increased force, illegal child labor, according to 
the reports of the bureau, was eliminated. In the fourth biennial 
report, the Commissioner gives notice as follows: 

"The Wisconsin bureau cannot furnish statistics of child 
labor, for the simple fact that there is no child labor in the 
state, in the strict sense of the word." 36 

The satisfaction of the Commissioner over the child labor 
situation was not shared by all. Private observers and out- 
spoken newspapers insisted that young children were still at 
work in certain factories. Instead of investigating the charges, 
the Bureau of Labor secured statements from some of the 
manufacturers accused of employing children contrary to law, 
in which these gentlemen made oath that they employed none 
under legal age. 37 It does not appear that this method of 
proving the law-abiding character of Wisconsin manufacturers 
was accepted by the "irresponsible persons and newspapers" 
that had raised the question, but the Deputy Commissioner de- 
clared in a public address in 1888 that not a child under four- 
teen years of age could be found in any of the two thousand 

34. Bpt. Bu. Lab. Stat., 1885-86. p. 13. 

35. Laws of Wis., 1887, ch. 549. No child under fourteen was to be em- 
ployed m factory or workshop for more than ten hours in one day nor for 
more than seven months in one year; no woman or minor was to be com- 
pelled to work in such establishments for more than eight hours in one day. 

36. Bpt. Bu. Lab. Stat., 1888-89, p. 7. 

37. Ibid. 



212 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

factories of the state. "Our system of state inspection," he 
asserted, "prevents their employment." 38 

The year 1889 marked very definite progress in both school 
attendance and child labor legislation. The labor law already 
sought to protect children employed in factories, workshops, 
and mines ; to this list were now added stores and other places 
of business and amusement. The age limit was raised to 
thirteen but a vicious system of permits was established which 
really lowered it to ten. County judges might, at their dis- 
cretion, grant a permit to work to any child over ten years of 
age who could read and write English. This was intended 
for the relief of needy children, but as the judges could not 
investigate each case, the result was that practically all who 
applied secured permission to go to work. 39 The educational 
requirements in this measure were very meager and no ad- 
equate means of enforcement were provided. It was strength- 
ened two years later, the minimum age being advanced to four- 
teen, though permits still might be granted to a child of 
twelve. 40 

In regard to school attendance, a somewhat critical situation 
had arisen. A large number of German-language schools had 
been established, and, to a lesser extent, Scandinavian schools 
were emphasizing their own language rather than the English. 
In 1889 Governor William D. Hoard in his message to the 
legislature called attention to this situation, asserting that the 
child has a right to a reasonable amount of instruction in the 
common English branches, and demanded specifically that all 
be given opportunity to learn to read and write in English, 
He recommended a system of state inspection to enforce a re- 
quirement that these subjects be taught in all schools. 41 There 
followed the enactment of the famous "Bennet Law." 42 There 
was nothing unusual or revolutionary about this measure. It 



38. Ct. Bpt., Lab. Stat., 1889, p. 50. The minimum age for legal employ- 
ment in factories in Wisconsin was not raised to thirteen until 1889. It 
was advanced to fourteen in 1891. 

39. An. Am. Acad. Pol. and Soc. Set., op. cit., p. 469; Laws of Wis., 1889, 
ch. 519. 

40. Laws of Wis., 1891, ch. 109. 

41. Assembly Journal, 1889, p. 267. 

42. Laws of Wis., 1889, ch. 519. 



WISCONSIN 213 

strengthened the former requirements in certain respects, pro- 
vided for the attendance of all children between seven and 
fourteen upon some school, unless properly excused, and gave 
a negative definition of a school, simple and reasonable enough 
in an American state, yet sufficiently displeasing to a consider- 
able element to bring the entire law into public notice and 
finally into the courts. It was as follows: 

"No school shall be regarded as a school under this act un- 
less there shall be taught therein, as part of the elementary 
education of children, reading, writing, arithmetic, and United 
States History in the English language." 

A German paper in Milwaukee was the first to call attention 
to the possible effect of this law upon certain private and 
parochial schools; others joined, and there was hot discussion 
in the press and on the platform. On June 4, 1890, an "Anti- 
Bennet State Convention" was held at Milwaukee, the chief 
seat of opposition to the law. Here a fervent call was made 
upon all "who cherish liberty, regardless of party or nation- 
ality, to join in the effort to have this unnecessary, unjust, and 
discord-breeding measure repealed." The democratic leaders 
saw their opportunity, and accused the republicans of de- 
liberately seeking to overthrow the rights of the free individual 
and of the churches, saying in the platform of that year: 

"To mask this tyrannical invasion of individual and con- 
stitutional rights, the shallow plea of defense of the English 
language is advanced." 43 

From the standpoint of political opportunity, the Democratic 
party had been fortunate in seizing upon this cause as its 
principal issue. Its candidate for the governorship was swept 
into office by a majority of 30,000 over the Republican can- 
didate, who had signed the unfortunate Bennet law. The of- 
fending measure was promptly repealed, and in its stead a law 
was enacted which did not require the use of the English 
language. 44 



43. Thwaites, Wisconsin, p. 408. 

44. Laws of Wis., 1891, ch. 187. The requirement that instruction be given 
in the English language is not unusual in our compulsory attendance laws. 
It is scarcely conceivable that the leaders of the party of Thomas Jefferson 
could have seriously objected to a measure intended to insure a reasonable 
command of the language of their adopted country, to the children of 



214 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

The compulsory attendance measure enacted to take the place 
of the Bennet law was mild enough to meet the demands of 
those most opposed to state direction of education. It reduced 
the required period of attendance by one year, making the 
compulsory period close at thirteen, despite the fact that the 
child labor act of the same session excluded children under 
fourteen from a considerable list of industries; any court of 
record might exempt a child under thirteen from the operation 
of the law ; enforcement was entrusted to the director or the 
president of a school board or to the truant officer whose ap- 
pointment was made optional with boards. When appointed, 
truant officers had no authority to visit places where children 
might be employed ; indeed, in no way did the law recognize 
that industrial and educational problems were even remotely 
related. 

The decade following the repeal of the Bennet law was a 
period of almost absolute inactivity so far as compulsory educa- 
tion was concerned. Elective officers had learned their lesson. 
It was not good form even to speak of such legislation, and 
state superintendents remained discreetly silent. There was a 
disturbing factor, however, in the United States census report 
of 1890, which showed that 31,993 Wisconsin children between 
seven and thirteen years of age, more than eleven per cent of 
the entire number of that age, were attending no school at all. 
Anxious officials succeeded in showing that had certain par- 
ochial schools been properly reported it would have been found 
that not more than 20,000 children between seven and thirteen 
were actually out of school. 45 The figures in 1895 show that 
about six per cent of the children of the compulsory age, near- 
ly 17,500, were without any form of instruction. 46 

immigrants, since all must realize the value of a common language in the 
development of loyal citizenship and true patriotism. It was a question of 
politics. Here was an excellent opportunity to catch a large foreign vote, 
an opportunity which a politician could not let pass. It is interesting to 
observe that after the passage of a quarter of a century there should come 
from this state, particularly from the foreign-language element and its 
political representatives, anti- American sentiment powerful enough to ham- 
per seriously the national administration in the control of the party 
which, in its zeal for office, exempted several thousand children from the 
mastery of the English tongue. 

45. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1891-92, p. 17f . 

46. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1895-96, p. 9. 



WISCONSIN 215 

In this decade the forces opposed to the employment of 
young children in industry were uniting and were gaining 
such an understanding of the problems connected with effect- 
ive enforcement of laws in restraint of the evil as enabled them 
to take an advanced step at its close. The inspectors had lost 
the complacency formerly expressed in their annual reports, 
and had come to realize that some thousands of young children 
were illegally employed. It must not be supposed that this 
relatively new mid-western state was essentially rural in its 
industrial life, like Iowa or Kansas. In 1890 it ranked tenth 
in the Union in the extent of its manufacturing interests. 47 
The commissioner of labor and industrial statistics, in an his- 
torical sketch in 1900, gives a dark picture of the working con- 
ditions of children: 

"In the older manufacturing cities of the state, conditions 
surrounding working children were found to exist as horrible 
as any which cursed the life of the factory hands of the older 
manufacturing states of our Union. No attention was given 
to the age or sex of the child or nature of the work performed, 
the only requirement being the physical capacity of the child 
to do the work given it." 48 

A more careful survey of the child labor situation than had 
heretofore been made was undertaken in 1897-1898. Of 5600 
children examined, 500, or nine per cent were found to be 
illegally employed. The results of the study were laid before 
the legislature, and in 1899 additional laws were secured allow- 
ing seven inspectors instead of two, and prohibiting the em- 
ployment of children under fourteen in factories, shops, and 
mines at any time, as heretofore, and in stores, laundries, and 
messenger service except during the vacations of the public 
schools. 49 The following year, the inspectors, prepared now for 
the first time to combat the hostility of the manufacturers, be- 
gan a vigorous and successful campaign for law enforcement. 50 

By 1897 it was again possible to consider compulsory school 
legislation, and in that year an act was passed restoring the 
upper limit of the compulsory age to fourteen, the minimum 

47. Wis. Bpt., Bu. Lab. and Indust. Stat., 1897-98, p. 40. 

48. Ibid., 1899-1900, p. 284. 

49. Wis. Laws, 1899, ch. 274. 

50. Bpt. Bu. Lab. and Indust. Stat., 1899-1900, pp. 293, 360. 



216 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

age for employment in the restricted industries. 51 A decided 
advance was made in 1903 when it was required that all 
children between seven and fourteen, and between fourteen 
and sixteen if not regularly employed, attend some public, 
parochial, or private school for the entire session, a period of 
not less than eight calendar months in cities, of not less than 
five months in other districts. 52 The only excuses admitted 
were mental or physical disability as attested by a reputable 
physician, or distance from school of more than two miles. En- 
forcement was well provided for in cities of the first class, 
where boards of education were required to appoint three or 
more truant officers; in other cities of 10,000 or more at least 
one such officer was to be appointed, while in the smaller dis- 
tricts appointment was optional. Truant officers were author- 
ized to visit places where children were employed, factory in- 
spectors were given the powers of truant officers, and the laws 
were brought into such harmony as to make possible close co- 
operation between the two groups of protective forces. 

The effect of the revised laws was immediately seen in an 
increased enrollment and in a more regular attendance. 53 In 
the cities truant officers were provided, and many children 
were brought under educational influences. 54 In villages and 
rural districts, however, little attention appears to have been 
given to the law. 55 

Meanwhile there was a steady advance in the efficiency of the 
child labor laws and in their administration. In 1901 the list 
of places in which the employment of children under fourteen 
was prohibited was made to include bowling alleys, beer 
gardens, and bar-rooms. 56 The law retained the requirement 
that employers must keep on file the parent's affidavit as 
evidence of age and schooling, a provision that Wisconsin, like 
New York, seemed reluctant to abolish. But with the further 
development of industry, accompanied by an increasing de- 



51. Laws of Wis., 1898, ch. 27. Enacted at adjourned session of 1897 In 
effect, Sept. 1, 1898. 

52. Laws of Wis., 1903, ch. 189. 

53. Wis. Sch. Bpt., 1903-1904, p. 65. 

54. Ibid., 1904-1905, p. 27. 

55. Ibid. 

56. Laws of 1901, ch. 182. 



WISCONSIN 217 

mand for child labor, false statements by parents became so 
common that the affidavit was abandoned. 57 In place of this 
discredited method of establishing the child's age, it was pro- 
vided that all children between fourteen and sixteen, seeking 
employment, should secure a labor permit from the commis- 
sioner of labor, a factory inspector, or a judge of a county, 
municipal, or juvenile court, such permit to be granted only 
to children who could read and write and only on presentation 
of evidence of age in the form of birth or baptismal certificate, 
or if these be lacking, a verified record of age on first enroll- 
ment in school. It was provided, however, that a child be- 
tween twelve and fourteen years of age might secure a cer- 
tificate for employment in certain industries during the vaca- 
tion of the public schools. Hours of labor were limited to ten 
in one day and fifty-five in one week, night work forbidden, 
except when necessary to save perishable goods, and a physical 
examination was required if demanded by the officer issuing 
the permit. 58 

Enforcement after 1903 was much less difficult than for- 
merly. Officers were not always sufficiently careful as to re- 
quirements of age, and an investigation conducted in 1904- 
1905 by the Federal Bureau of Labor showed that between 
three and four per cent of all children employed were under 
fourteen. 59 Yet on the whole, excellent results were obtained. 
Speaking of the law in 1906, Mr. Edward W. Frost of Mil- 
waukee said: 

"It. has revolutionized the system in Wisconsin, and some 
one thousand children were taken, in a year, out of the fac- 
tories and stores where they were unlawfully employed, and 
thousands kept from beginning work under age." 60 

Both the child labor and attendance laws were further 
modified at succeeding sessions of the legislature, notably that 
of 1907, always in the direction of greater restriction in em- 
ployment or more effective administration. In the reorganiza- 
tion of education undertaken in 1911, the questions involved 



57. An. Am. Acad. Pol. and Soc. Sci., op. cit., p. 471f. 

58. Laws of Wis., 1903, ch. 349. 

59. Bnl. No. 52, 1904, V. S. Bureau of Labor, p. 493. 

60. An. Am. Acad. Pol. and Soc. Sci., Mar., 1906, p. 101. 



218 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

in employment and attendance were merged with the larger 
question of industrial education, especially in the manufactur- 
ing centers, and in the concluding pages must be discussed in 
connection with this subject. 

The movement which brought Wisconsin into prominence 
educationally, and set her as the leader of the sisterhood of 
states in democratic education, was put under way at the close 
of the first decade of the twentieth century. By this time her 
laws for the protection of children were fairly good ; enforce- 
ment was probably better than in most of the north central 
states, yet each year, according to the statistics now reason- 
ably reliable, not far from 30,000 children between seven and 
fourteen years of age were out of school altogether. Other 
children, to the extent of several hundred each year, were be- 
ing taken out of illegal employment and, so far as the 
machinery of government permitted, ' were being forced into 
school, there to pursue courses of doubtful value because of 
little interest to them. Wisconsin was not alone in questioning 
the value to the working child of the subjects regularly offered 
in the upper elementary grades. Massachusetts had led in the 
intelligent study of the problem, several states had made more 
or less successful attempts to foster industrial education, but 
no state apparently had seen quite so clearly as Wisconsin the 
vision of a free and compulsory public school adapted to the 
needs of every child. 

For twenty years industrial leaders had been urging the 
special training in the schools of those who were to enter the 
skilled trades. 61 Interests, largely industrial and commercial, 
were calling for the introduction of manual training as a part 
of the educational program in the belief that it would serve 
as a partial preparation for the trades, and in 1895 a law was 
enacted offering state aid for its development in high schools. 62 
Session by session the legislature gave more generous support 
to the manual arts and to the encouragement of practical sub- 
jects. 63 In 1907 boards of education were given power to 

61. An address by a member of the Wisconsin Bureau of Labor and Sta- 
tics, recorded in 5th An. Bpt. of Conn. Bu. of Lab. Stat., p. 50. 

62. Laws of 1895, ch. 358. 

63. Laws of 1899, ch. 273; 1901, ch. 345. 



WISCONSIN 219 

establish trade schools, unless the voters should decide to the 
contrary. 64 

State Superintendent Cary had, from the beginning of 
his official service, favored industrial education for the 
children that must leave school early in order to go to work. 
In 1908 he began to urge the establishment of trade schools, 
holding that this was the only way to meet the needs of the 
throngs of children who never reach the high school. 65 In 
1909 the legislature created a special commission, directing it 
to study the condition and needs of education in the state, and 
to report at the next session. 66 This commission 67 made a care- 
ful study of the entire educational situation. It was at once 
seen that the old subject of compulsory attendance, with which 
the state had been laboring for exactly thirty years, was a part 
of the industrial question, that social changes had rendered 
prevailing standards wholly inadequate, and that the work of 
the commission must be more extensive than had been 
anticipated. 

"Our investigations," writes the chairman, "have led us 
directly to the study of the relation of industry to education. 
It is the education of the few, which must be thoroughly over- 
hauled, and which must be reorganized upon a sound basis, 
with an eye to the conditions of the future progress of our 
state." 68 

After two years of investigation, study, and constructive 
planning the commission laid the results of its work before the 
legislature, which, at the session of 1911, provided for a state 
system of industrial education in accordance with the recom- 



64. Laws of 1907, ch. 122. 

65. Madison Democrat, Jan. 20, 1908. The Milwaukee School of Trades, 
founded in 1906 by legislative act, under the auspices of the Merchants' 
and Manufacturers' Association of Milwaukee, had been made a part of the 
city school system under the law of 1907. This school, said to be the first 
trade school in the United States to be sustained by a special tax levied 
for industrial education, could not serve the class of children Superintend- 
ent Cary had in mind, as boys were not received until sixteen years of age. 
— Industrial Education, Pub. by Am. Fed. of Labor, 1910, p. 33. 

66. Joint Resolution No. S3, Leg. 1909. 

67. Composed of the state superintendent of public instruction, the presi- 
dent of the university, the director of the extension division of the univer- 
sity, the librarian of the legislative reference department, and the superin- 
tendent of the Milwaukee public schools. 

68. Bpt. of the Com., p. 3. 



220 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

mendations submitted. 69 This system was the logical outcome 
of the compulsory attendance and child labor laws which had 
been in process of development during the preceding genera- 
tion, reenforced by the modern conception of relationship be- 
tween education and industry. 

In every community of five thousand inhabitants or more, 
there must be established a local board of industrial education, 
so organized as to unite the separate interests of education, 
labor, and capital. The local superintendent of schools or high 
school principal is ex officio, a member of this board ; the other 
four members consisting of two employers of labor and two 
employees, are appointed by the local school board for terms 
of two years, and serve without pay. 70 It is the duty of the 
local board of industrial education to "establish, foster, and 
maintain schools for instruction in trades and industries, com- 
merce and household arts in part-time-day, all-day, and even- 
ing classes." By virtue of its appointment, this board is al- 
most certain to remain in sympathetic relation with the regular 
public schools. Legally, however, it is quite independent of 
them. It prepares its own budget, reports its needs to the 
city, village, or town council, and in accordance with its estim- 
ate a tax is levied and collected, as other taxes are, not to 
exceed one-half mill on the taxable property of the district. 

At the head of the system of industrial education is a state 
board which is charged with full responsibility in the organ- 
ization and development of vocational education in the state, 
has control of all state aid given to industrial schools, allots 
federal aid under the Smith-Hughes act, and serves to unify 
the entire system of industrial education from top to bottom. 

This board, as originally constituted, was composed of nine 
members, three being ex officiis, the state superintendent of 

69. Laws, 1911, ch. 616. Three years before Wisconsin created her com- 
mission for the study of industrial education, Massachusetts provided for 
a similar study of her educational problems. The notable work of the 
Massachusetts commission and the legislation based upon it began a new 
chapter in the educational history of this country. Doubtless the Wisconsin 
commission was greatly indebted to the leaders in Massachusetts, but in the 
newer state, free from hampering traditions, a more rapid advance was 
possible. 

70. Towns under five thousand population may appoint such boards, and up 
to January 1, 1917, twenty had done so and fifteen had continuation schools 
in operation. 



WISCONSIN 221 

public instruction and the deans of the department of extension 
and the college of engineering of the State University. The 
remaining six members, three employers of labor and three 
skilled employees, were appointed by the governor for terms 
of two years. 

There has been extended discussion of the relative merits of 
a system of industrial education entirely dissociated from the 
general school system and one fairly closely connected with 
it. On the one hand a certain element feared that the educat- 
ors would finally assume complete control of the industrial 
schools, and that for the sake of the latter there should be an 
entire separation of the two systems. 71 On the other hand, 
prominent school men have insisted that the best results could 
be obtained through the close coordination of theoretical or 
general education with the practical. 72 

The experience of several years has seemed to warrant the 
maintenance of local boards of industrial education precisely 
as first organized, but the state board has been changed so as 
to increase the representation of the vocational interests, con- 
tinuing the State Superintendent of Public Instruction as the 
sole representative of general education. 73 

It is not possible here to enter upon a detailed discussion of 
the Wisconsin system of industrial education. Those schools 
upon which attendance is compulsory for certain classes of 
children or youth must be indicated, however, and some of 
their significant features briefly considered. First in import- 
ance is the continuation school. This school is at the heart 
of the Wisconsin system of industrial education. It was 
originally designed for children at work on permits, but the 
law now requires that all children between fourteen and seven- 
teen years of age, living in a town, village or city maintaining 
schools under the board of vocational education and not in 
attendance upon some other school, must attend one of the 



71. Wisconsin State Journal, Dec. 21, 1916, editorial. 

72. Education News Bulletin, Jan. 1, 1917; Milwaukee Leader, Mar. 14, 
1917; Bacine Journal-News, Mar. 11, 1916. 

73. Laws, 1917, ch. 41, sec. 41.13. As now constituted, this board is made 
up of the state superintendent, one member of the industrial commission 
selected by the commission itself, and nine members appointed by the gov- 
ernor, three employers, three skilled employees, and three practical farmers. 



222 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

industrial or continuation schools for at least eight hours a 
week during eight months each year. 74 In the year 1915-1916 
these schools gave instruction to 14,284 children, a number 
which, by 1920, had increased to 20,932. 75 These children were 
above fourteen years of age, had dropped out of the public or 
parochial schools to go to work, and though many were no 
more than half way through the grades, their schooling, so far 
as the old system could serve them, was at an end. 76 

It must not be supposed that all the children enrolled in the 
continuation schools began their attendance willingly. Not 
only does the child very often seek to escape further education- 
al obligations when once he has secured release from the public 
school, but parents sometimes look upon the continuation 
school as an attempt to deprive them of a portion of the child's 
time, which might better be devoted to increasing the family 
income. 77 

The fact that a large proportion of the children are employed 
in "blind alley jobs" adds decidedly to the difficulty in ad- 
ministering the courses of study and in giving intelligent 
vocational guidance. Such guidance is not possible without 
interest, and this is precisely the stimulation that the blind 
alley worker lacks. 78 Yet interest must be developed, and an 
academic foundation made secure, if the school is to justify it- 
self. One director writes: 

"In our own schools we are spending one-half of the time in 



74. When the continuation schools were first established, in 1911, the mini- 
mum period of attendance for employment certificate children was fixed at 
five hours a week for six months each year. Wisconsin Laws, 1911, ch. 660. 
The law was amended in 1915, providing that children between sixteen and 
seventeen years of age, who were in employment, should attend the continua- 
tion school for four hours a week during eight months of the year, or for 
five hours during six months. Section 17280-2. No provision was made for 
the enforcement of this amendment, and a permit was not required; in case 
a child had passed his sixteenth birthday, the officers of the commission 
were practically impotent. In 1917, the requirements were increased as 
noted above, and children under seventeen, whether at work or not, were 
made subject to them. In all cases the time spent in school is to be in- 
eluded, if the child is at work, in the maximum number of hours during 
which employment is permitted. Wisconsin State Board of Vocational 
Education; Bulletin No. 3, 1919, pp. 13-14. 

75. Letter, Secretary Wis. St. Bd. Voc. Ed., Mar. 15, 1920. 

76. Wis. St. Bd. Indust. Ed., Bui. No. 3, 1916, p. 4. 

77. Ibid., Bui. No. 12, 1916, p. 41. 

78. Bui. No. 12, op. cit., p. 42. 



WISCONSIN 223 

beeping alive that flickering spark of academic intelligence 
which may be found in the minds of most of the boys and 
girls." 79 

The law makes few specific requirements as to the courses 
of study. Only English, citizenship, sanitation, and hygiene, 
and the use of safety devices are mentioned, all else being left 
to the local boards, subject to the approval of the state board 
and the state superintendent. Local conditions, then, may de- 
termine the subjects to be emphasized in any particular 
community. 

From the beginning, the state has supported the continuation 
schools generously, granting annually a sum equal to one-half 
the amount actually expended the preceding year by the local 
board in any approved school, provided that the sum granted 
a school in one year must not exceed three thousand dollars. 
Tn 1911 only two cities claimed this aid; in 1913, twenty-one; 
in 1915, twenty-nine; in 1919, forty-three; in 1920, forty-eight. 

Local boards of industrial education may establish all-day 
industrial and commercial schools if conditions warrant, to 
which the state board will grant state aid on the same basis 
as to continuation schools. Youth between fourteen and seven- 
teen who are employed, may satisfy the compulsory require- 
ments by attendance upon these schools. Those who have been 
employed on permit and are temporarily out of work com- 
prise a large proportion of the enrollment, which is relatively 
small, 4303 in the industrial, 938 in the commercial schools in 
1916. 80 

In 1911 the apprenticeship law was rewritten, providing that 
every apprentice should be taught the whole trade as carried 
on by his employer, that not to exceed fifty-five hours a week 
should be spent in employment and instruction, and that of 
this time not less than five hours a week should be devoted to 
instruction to be given either in a public school or in such 
other manner as the local board of industrial education might 
approve, such instruction to continue during the entire period 
of apprenticeship. 



79. Ibid. 

80. Wis. St. Bd. Indust. Ed., Bui. No. 12, 1916, p. 24. In 1919-1920, 
enrollment in the day continuation schools was 26,874, in the evening 
schools, 23,178. 



224 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

This measure did not prove popular. Only about four 
hundred apprenticeship contracts were filed with the Industrial 
Commission to which had been entrusted the administration 
of the law, although it was estimated that there should have 
been 13,000. 81 In 1915 the law was revised, 82 fixing the upper 
age limit for compulsory instruction at eighteen and giving the 
Industrial Commission, instead of the Board of Industrial 
Education, control over the subjects to be taught and over 
certain administrative details. The new measure has been 
sharply criticized. It is said that the period of compulsory in- 
struction was cut down through the influence of the employers, 
who now take apprentices at eighteen, thus avoiding the school- 
ing requirements altogether. This has had the effect of keep- 
ing working boys in blind alley occupations up to eighteen, 
and in this respect the change in the law was a backward 
step. 83 

On the whole, the system of education through apprentice- 
ship appears to be operating with sufficient effectiveness to 
offer encouragement to its promoters. It was seriously dis- 
turbed by the war, yet decided progress has been made and 
skilled workmen well grounded in both the theory and practice 
of their trades are being graduated each year. 84 

The attitude of labor toward the system of industrial educa- 
tion in Wisconsin has been somewhat equivocal. Without the 
support of working men it would have been impossible to carry 
out the present program, yet the State Federation of Labor, 
although announcing itself as favorable to education in all 
forms, has declined to become identified with any specific 
movement. 85 Organized labor has favored the practical in 
education, but has protested against any scheme that would 
tend to create a large class of semi-skilled mechanics. 86 So 
far as the schools are able to raise the general level of intelli- 
gence of employed youth, they will doubtless receive the un- 



81. Ibid., pp. 27-28. 

82. Laws, 1915, ch. 133. 

83. Wis. St. Jour., Jan. 14, 1917. 

84. Industrial Commission, Bpt. on Allied Functions, 1918, p. 56. 

85. The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, July 22, 1916. 

86. Wisconsin Labor Bulletin, April 21, 1916. 



WISCONSIN 225 

qualified support of labor. The trade school is not likely to 
be given so full a measure of support, however, it being held 
preferable that the trade be learned through apprenticeship, 
over which labor may exercise more direct control. 87 

Enforcement of attendance in the continuation schools has 
been relatively simple wherever the cooperation of interested 
forces has been secured. As a rule the school authorities have 
sought to meet the needs of the employers, thus securing their 
good will and their interest in the progress made by their 
young employees in school. The Industrial Commission through 
its inspectors cooperates, also, by revoking the working papers 
of any child who persistently absents himself from the con- 
tinuation school, thus removing him from employment and 
forcing him back into regular day school. 

The Industrial Commission has assumed a large place in 
Wisconsin's organization for the protection and education of 
working children. 88 Originally it united within itself the 
functions of the bureau of labor and industrial statistics, the 
state board of mediation and arbitration, the department of 
factory inspection, and the industrial accident board. Gradual- 
ly its duties have been extended and made to include important 
educational functions, among them the organization and stimu- 
lation of apprenticeship education, and the supervision of the 
enforcement of compulsory attendance. The commission also 
cooperates in various ways with the part-time and other in- 
dustrial schools, using all available agencies to advance their 
interests. 89 

In its relation to this study, the most conspicuous service 
performed by the industrial commission is in connection with 
the administration of the child labor law. The regulations 
under which children may be employed have been revised in 
various details since 1911, until now, though not ideal, they 
constitute an excellent working law. As administered at 
present, this law appears to insure to the working child ad- 
equate protection and an elementary and industrial education 



87. Ibid. 

88. Laws of Wis., 1911, ch. 485. 

89. Indust. Com. of Wis., Bpt. on Allied Functions, 1914, p. 55; 1914, p. 
61ff; 1917, p. 42. 



226 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOE 

not excelled by the compulsory measures of any other state. 
Some of the more important provisions are the following: 

1. No child under fourteen shall be employed in any gain- 
ful occupation, except that children between twelve and four- 
teen may be employed during the vacations of the public 
schools in a limited group of industries specified in the law, 
provided a labor permit has been secured. 

2. No child between fourteen and seventeen years of age 
may be employed in any gainful occupation without a labor 
permit. 

3. The labor permit. 90 (1) Documentary proof of age must 
be presented in the form of a certificate of birth, record of 
baptism, or other documentary evidence satisfactory to the 
commission. 

(2) A schooling certificate is required, signed by the super- 
intendent or principal of schools, showing that the child is 
more than fourteen years of age and has completed the sixth 
grade in school or its equivalent, or has attended school for 
at least seven years. 91 

(3) The applicant must file a written promise of suitable 
employment. 

(4) The employer is required to file with the issuing officer 
a written statement to the effect that the permit has been re- 
ceived and filed, and that the child is actually employed. 

(5) Within twenty-four hours after termination of employ- 
ment, the employer must return the permit to the office of 
issue. 

(6) The representative of the commission may refuse to 
issue a permit in case the child seems physically unfit to en- 
gage in the employment proposed, or in case, in his judgment, 
the best interests of the child would be served by such refusal. 

(7) The commissioner of labor is authorized to revoke a 
permit without notice if it appears that the welfare of the 
child would best be served by such action. 

4. All children under seventeen employed under permit in 
a city maintaining a vocational school must attend such school 
for at least eight hours per week, for at least eight months per 
year. 

5. The total number of hours of labor and schooling must 
not exceed forty-eight in one week if the child is under six- 
teen, or fifty-five in one week if between sixteen and seventeen. 

6. It is the duty of inspectors and truant officers to visit 



90. The restrictions in 1 and 2 do not apply to children employed in 
agricultural pursuits. 

91. After July 1, 1920, completion of the seventh grade or attendance for 
at least eight years. 



WISCONSIN 227 

places where children are employed and to prosecute violators 
of the law. 

7. Employers violating the law are subject to a fine of not 
less than ten dollars nor more than two hundred dollars for 
each offense, or imprisonment in the county jail not longer 
than thirty days. Parents permitting the illegal employment 
of a child may be fined not less than five nor more than twenty- 
five dollars, or imprisoned for not longer than thirty days. 

In most respects, the Wisconsin child labor law now embodies 
the highest standards that have thus far been established any- 
where. No specific provision is made, however, for the physical 
examination of applicants for working papers. The law author- 
izes the withholding of permits from those who seem physically 
unfit to perform the labor proposed, and the commission has 
interpreted this to mean that the child is to be protected in 
his health as well as in his education. It has, therefore, held 
that school officials, and others designated as permit deputies, 
may require certificates of health issued by a public health 
physician or by some other legally qualified physician, before 
granting labor permits. 92 In Milwaukee, equivalent to one- 
half the state measured by the number of children at work, no 
permit is issued unless the applicant presents a detailed state- 
ment of his physical condition from the city health department 
or from other competent medical authority. The issuing officer 
uses this statement in determining whether or not the applicant 
is physically fit to perform the labor at which he is to be 
employed. 93 

In the enforcement of the child labor laws, for which it is 
fully responsible, the industrial commission has sought the co- 
operation of the school authorities, utilizing them quite general- 
ly throughout the state in the granting of labor permits. Be- 
fore the creation of the commission, permits might be issued 
by the commissioner of labor, a factory inspector, or by the 
judge of any county, municipal, or juvenile court. 94 With 
minor changes, this practice was continued until 1917, when 
it was provided that permits might be issued only by the com- 

92. Industrial Commission of Wis., Bpt. on Allied Functions, 1918, p. 47. 

93. Industrial Commission of Wis., Child Labor Law, p. 12. In Milwaukee 
in 1916, permits were denied more than five per cent of those applying for 
them. Industrial Commission; Statistics on Child Labor, p. 4. 

94. The basis of this provision is found in the law of 1889. 



228 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

mission or by some person designated by it. 95 So far as pos- 
sible, those already in public service, mostly judges and school 
officials, are entrusted with this duty. 96 The commission has 
endeavored, also, to secure the cooperation of the various social 
and civic organizations 97 and of the employers themselves. 98 

Under the law the commission has extensive power in de- 
termining the conditions under which children may be em- 
ployed. 99 It has been given a powerful leverage in enforce- 
ment, also, by a provision in the workmen's compensation law 
to the effect that any minor of permit age who is injured while 
working without a permit or while engaged in a prohibited 
industry, must be awarded treble compensation, the employer 
himself paying the extra compensation, or two-thirds of the 
whole. The maximum sum which may be received, when a 
child illegally employed is injured, is $22,815, of which the em- 
ployer would be required to pay $15,210 ; no insurance against 
this hazard is permitted under the law. 100 

In the city of Milwaukee the machinery of the public 
school system is effectively organized to deal with attend- 
ance, health, employment, and related problems. 101 But 
even here, the industrial commission is in the closest possible 
touch with the life of the working child. An office is main- 
tained in the city and all labor permits are issued by a deputy 
of the commission. A junior employment department Operates 
in connection with the permit office and every effort is made 
to place in suitable occupations those children who must go 
to work. The department of factory inspection cooperates 
with the permit and employment officers; special workers, 



95. Industrial Commission, Ept. on Allied Functions, 1918, p. 45. 

96. Ibid. About two hundred persons, serving without pay, give part of 
their time to this work. 

97. Ibid., Ept. for 1917, p. 32. 

98. Ibid., Ept. for 1914, p. 56. 

99. Ibid., Ept. for 1914, p. 53. 

100. Ibid., Ept. for 1918, p. 46. 

101. The supervisor of the attendance department of the Milwaukee schools, 
H. E. Pestalozzi, relative of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, is a conspicuous 
figure in the child-welfare work of the city and the state. Few men under- 
stand so well as he the needs and limitations of working children. He has 
been an insistent advocate of methods and subject-matter adapted to these 
needs, and of laws so drawn and administered as to guarantee to each child 
adequate educational and industrial opportunities. 



WISCONSIN 229 

many of them volunteers, aid in adjusting the educational and 
■working programs of the employed children; undesirable em- 
ployers are discovered and listed; employers are instructed 
as to the requirements and penalties of the law, and those few 
who, after due notice, decline to cooperate in the interests of 
enforcement, are subjected to fine or imprisonment. 102 

Wisconsin has gone farther than the average American 
commonwealth in the direction of state enforcement of attend- 
ance, having at least attempted to secure centralized super- 
vision. Direct responsibility for the administration of these 
laws is laid upon local school boards, truant officers, superin- 
tendents, and sheriffs, but the industrial commission is author- 
ized to participate in enforcement so far as it is not secured 
by other agencies. 103 Following the New York practice, the 
commission provided for a system of monthly reports of at- 
tendance from truant officers, superintendents and teachers, 
intending to keep in touch with the schools of the state and to 
check the work of local officials. 104 Unfortunately, the duties 
of the commission in the administration of the labor laws have 
become so heavy that it has been unable to give adequate at- 
tention to school attendance. 105 The machinery is available for 
the type of state supervision of attendance carried on for 
some years in New York, 106 and now inaugurated in Pennsyl- 
vania, 107 but the industrial commission is not accepting the 
responsibility laid upon it by the law, the state department of 
education has no authority to proceed, and as a consequence 
those counties and cities that wish to enforce the law do so 
according to their respective ideals of enforcement, while 
those not interested may neglect the statute altogether with- 
out fear of state interference or penalty. 

Evidently Wisconsin has made no striking contribution to 
methods of administering laws requiring the general attend- 



102. 77. S. Dept. of Labor, Children's Bureau, Standards of Child Welfare, 
1919, pp. 125-131. Indust. Com. of Wis. Bpt. on Allied Functions, 1918, 
p. 49. 

103. Indust. Com. of Wis., Bpt. on Allied Functions, 1917, p. 39. 

104. Ibid., 1918, p. 51. 

105. Ibid. 

106. Supra, p. 167. 

107. Supra, p. 201. 



230 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

ance of young children upon the means of education, yet it 
is not easy to overemphasize the service performed by her in 
pointing the way to compulsory industrial education in 
America. While other states were moving slowly towards the 
education of working children by way of voluntary evening 
and part-time day schools, Wisconsin, profiting by the con- 
spicuous example of certain of the German states, inaugurated 
her system of compulsory continuation schools and entered 
upon the series of experiments leading to her present well- 
rounded system. For several years the pioneer work of Wis- 
consin was followed with keen interest by professional educat- 
ors and laymen alike. Finally, Pennsylvania, in 1915, estab- 
lished a complete system of continuation schools requiring the 
attendance of all children employed on certificate. Since then, 
progress has been rapid. At the present time a third of all 
the states in the Union have enacted laws providing for some 
form of compulsory education for working children. 108 



108. Seq., p. 256. 



CHAPTER IX 

SUMMAEY AND CONCLUSION 

In this chapter it is proposed to segregate certain of the 
more significant factors entering into the legislation discussed 
in the preceding sections, to observe their relationships, to 
summarize their historical evolution, and to determine their 
present status. 

Legislative investigations as bases of compulsory measures 
At the present time the progressive educational programs in 
the various states and the most effective legislation for the 
control of child labor are based upon carefully conducted in- 
vestigations carried on by selected experts appointed under 
legislative authority. It is not difficult to find crude precedent 
for the elaborate child labor and educational laws of to-day 
in the statute of Henry IV., in 1405, requiring children to en- 
gage in regular employment if not attending school. 1 This 
statute was in response to the petitions of Commons based 
upon industrial facts which, in the judgment of the petitioners, 
demanded far more drastic legislation than that finally secured. 
Methods of obtaining data upon which laws in control of 
children were based apparently remained crude and inade- 
quate in England up to the middle of the nineteenth century. 
In the beginning of that fruitful century, the investigations 
which laid the foundation for modern methods were carried 
on largely by private initiative and private means. By the 
middle of the century, however, legislative commissions were 
making thorough-going inquiries into industrial and education- 
al conditions which have served as working models on both 
sides of the Atlantic. 

In America, seventeenth century legislation relating to the 
employment and education of children was based upon facts of 
common knowledge or upon tradition. In the early national 



p. 10. 

231 



232 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

period there were half-hearted inquiries of no great value, 
usually made at the insistent demand of the newly enfran- 
chised working 1 men, and not seriously intended to present 
facts upon which compelling laws might be built. 2 Such in- 
vestigations were made by the legislators themselves and were 
neither extensive nor definite in character, though sometimes 
revealing conditions bad enough to warrant far more vigorous 
action than any proposed. Toward the close of the nineteenth 
century more definite inquiries began to be made, now con- 
ducted by committees or commissions in accordance with legis- 
lative resolutions or acts. As a rule these bodies studied with 
some care the industrial or educational problems assigned to 
them, and their reports throw much light upon conditions pre- 
vailing at the time. 3 In the first and second decades of the 
twentieth century, inquiries, investigations, and surveys have 
assumed highly specialized aspects ; they have been carried out, 
sometimes by direct legislative orders, sometimes under the 
authority of boards vested with legal powers to order and 
support such investigations, but always under the immediate 
direction of trained experts not members of the authorizing 
bodies. 4 As might be expected, resulting legislation, based on 
data secured, has carried constantly diminishing evidence of 
political and other vested interests. 

Change in attitude toward the child 
Pear was the force back of the Elizabethan child labor laws 
compelling young children of the poorer classes to engage in 
productive toil, fear of poverty and of the evil effects of idle- 
ness. That same fear, likewise, was in the hearts of the colo- 
nial law-makers of 1642 and 1647, supplemented by the fear 
of Satan who, they were assured, ever used ignorance to 
damn the race. There was, to be sure, an appreciation of the 
earning power of children, 5 which became more pronounced in 
the later years of the seventeenth century, when, in the new 
material prosperity, the educational requirements were relaxed 



2. Pennsylvania, 1822, supra, p. 42. 

3. For example, see Mass., 1895, supra, p. 7 Of. 

4. Mass., 1905, supra, p. 76ff. 

5. Supra, p. 20f. 






SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 233 

in order that thrifty parents and masters might more diligently 
" improve their children and servants in labor." 6 But the 
economic value of the child was not stressed in America until 
the application of power to textile machinery in the closing 
years of the eighteenth century put a premium upon nimble 
fingers and mental alertness. Under the new conditions par- 
ents found in a large family of children a very substantial 
source of income. No one questioned the father's right to the 
time and labor of his child, and early attempts to limit the em- 
ployment of very young children were opposed on the grounds 
of unwarranted interference with the natural and holy privi- 
leges of parenthood. 

The earlier legislation was not written in a spirit friendly 
and sympathetic to the child; rather it is typical of the stern 
idea of Puritan justice untempered by mercy. 7 It was not the 
idea of reformation but of unquestioned control which moved 
the law-maker as he sought to solve the social problems of his 
day, and in case the parent Avas not able to maintain a suffici- 
ent degree of control over his child, the state stood ready to 
assist. 8 Very naturally the employer was regarded, in a sense, 
as standing in loco parentis. The early system of apprentice- 
ship would make this conception inevitable. Therefore, until 
quite recently, the interests of the employer rather than those 
of the child have been uppermost in the making and adminis- 
tration of laws regulating employment and schooling. It has 
not been difficult for those who were exploiting children in 
factories to control at least one branch of a state legislature, 
if action prejudicial to their interests seemed imminent. 9 Even 
when adequate laws finally were secured, enforcing officers 
usually dealt tenderly with employers who continued children 
on their pay rolls in defiance of restrictions. 10 In case of actual 
prosecution, conviction was made next to impossible by throw- 
ing upon the prosecutor the burden of proving that the child 
had been "knowingly and wilfully" employed. In modern 



6. Supra, p. 26. 

7. For example, the Massachusetts law of 1642, supra, p. 20. 

8. In accordance with ancient Hebrew usages, the. death penalty might be 
exacted if children became incorrigible. See Conn. Col. Records, p. 515. 

9. Supra, p. 123. 

10. Supra, pp. 49, 56, 146, 179. 



234 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

legislation the interests of the child and of society have first 
place. Needy parents may no longer jeopardize the future of 
the state by denying to their children the elements of educa- 
tion. Employers have discovered that, after all, the labor of 
young children is not so profitable as had been supposed, and 
in case of illegal employment there is little opportunity for 
refuge in the ambiguous or confusing phrasing of statutes. It 
is now a kindly state that safe-guards the child, secures his 
physical and moral health, insists that he acquire the funda- 
mentals of a literary education, puts him in possession of some 
industrial skill and seeks to advance him to intelligent, useful 
citizenship. 

Prime movers for the protection of children 
It is not pleasant to conclude that schools and teachers have 
had an inconspicuous place in the development of a public 
sentiment necessary to secure adequate laws for the protection 
and education of children. Teachers have not been anxious to 
receive in their well-ordered classes those who, by taste or 
necessity, placed foremost the bread-winning pursuits. School 
superintendents and other school officials empowered to en- 
force attendance laws often have persistently declined to dis- 
charge their duty. 11 Those interested in parochial schools 
have, in many instances, opposed compulsory attendance legis- 
lation, fearing that the enforcement of such laws would lead 
to state interference with the conduct of their schools. 12 
Strangely enough a very general argument in opposition to 
laws requiring attendance at school, during the first three- 
quarters of the nineteenth century, was that such measures 
were undemocratic and out of harmony with American prin- 
ciples of government. 13 

Enfranchised working men, organized and able to command 
the attention of the state legislatures, were largely responsible 
for the earliest authorized investigations of the conditions 
under which children were employed. 14 Philanthropic agencies, 



11. For example, Mass., supra, p. 63. 

12. For example, Wis., supra, p. 212. 

13. For example, Penn., supra, p. 176; Wis., pp. 204, 207. 

14. For example, N. Y., supra, p. 116; Penn., p. 173. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 235 

even before labor became influential, had accomplished some- 
thing, and when these two forces learned how to cooperate they 
became the outstanding influence in the movement in behalf 
of children. 

Naturally enough, labor organizations have been primarily 
interested in restricting the employment of children, and only 
indirectly were they at first concerned with their schooling; 
philanthropy, on the other hand, was first aroused by the fact 
that industry was robbing children of even the elements of 
school education. That the forces controlled or influenced by 
labor and philanthropy have not been completely coordinated 
is evidenced by the fact that in few states has there been en- 
tire harmony in the laws relating to child labor and school 
attendance. In the administration of such laws there has been 
even less harmony. 

Both labor and philanthropy have operated in the program 
in behalf of children through various specialized agencies, such 
as committees of labor unions, state departments or bureaus 
of labor, and state and national child labor committees. State 
departments of education have more recently exercised con- 
siderable influence, while teachers through state and national 
organizations have fallen in with the general movement. 

Some of the retarding influences 
Since the time of James Carter and Horace Mann there has 
been constant agitation for legislation intended to restrain 
children from severe labor and to provide for their schooling. 
Many causes have contributed to delay adequate legislation. 
Some of them have already been indicated. Selfishness of em- 
ployers and poverty of parents, unwilling to sacrifice their real 
or fancied interests to the social good, were for years relatively 
constant factors. Social inertia long rendered adequate laws 
impossible. A few men with vested interests could easily pre- 
vent legislation, could usually divert attention from the real 
issues. Progress was delayed, also, by the early enactment of 
spineless laws, which were widely copied in various states. The 
Michigan attendance law of 1871, copied without substantial 
change in half a dozen other states, and the Massachusetts act 
of 1852, the first general attendance law in America, are good 
examples. 



236 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Religious organizations not in complete sympathy with public 
education have frequently resisted such state control as is im- 
plied in compulsory school attendance laws, and in several 
states have been strong enough to prevent legislation for years 
or to demand concessions which have greatly weakened the 
measures enacted. 15 

Possibly the element which, more than any other, has tended 
to delay effective control of the entire situation has been the 
lack of cooperation of agencies interested primarily in the re- 
striction of child labor and those chiefly concerned in educa- 
tion. That child labor and compulsory school attendance repre- 
sent but two aspects of a single problem is now generally 
recognized. Yet even to-day, while the laws themselves are 
usually worked out with such care as to insure reasonable 
harmony, there is relatively little cooperation in their ad- 
ministration. 16 

Exemption from the requirements of compulsory laws 
In the earlier attendance laws liberal provision was made 
for exemption from the fixed penalties. The most persistent 
of the causes for exemption have been poverty of parents and 
lack of mental or physical ability on the part of the child, but 
even these claims are yielding. Most states make special pro- 
vision for the education of children defective in mind or body ; 
the most enlightened are compelling the attendance of such 
unfortunates upon suitable means of instruction. 17 

Under the theory that the parent was entitled to the economic 
service of his child, compulsory school attendance laws were 
long resisted. In many states the enactment of the first legis- 
lation of this character was possible only by including the 
provision that in case the labor of a child was necessary for 
the support of his parents he would be exempt from the penal- 
ties of the law. In the later development of compulsory school 
attendance laws it became evident that the children most 



15. Supra, pp. 128, 147, 213. 

16. In this respect Connecticut must be cited as a conspicuous exception. 
Here a single set of state officials is charged with the duty of keeping 
children in school and out of illegal employment. Even here it is not always 
easy to secure necessary cooperation of local officials. 

17. Supra, p. 73. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 237 

frequently excused were precisely the ones most important to 
reach, since primarily, free public education was for the benefit 
of the poor. As early as 1889 Massachusetts, in revising her 
attendance laws, omitted poverty as cause for exemption from 
their operation. Connecticut alone of the states included in 
this study retains this provision, but in the administration of 
the law few children, if any, under fourteen years of age re- 
main out of school because of poverty. 

Legislation alone cannot dispose of the problems of poverty. 
Against the child who leaves school to earn food and clothing 
society has no case. Until a way is found to relieve the neces- 
sity which drives a child too early to bread-winning labor, at 
the same time preserving the self respect of both the child and 
his family, poverty, whether recognized as legal cause for ex- 
emption or not, will serve to shorten the desired period of 
schooling. 18 

Compulsory health, provisions 
In enacting the first compulsory education law in America 
the General Court of Massachusetts Bay clearly had in mind 
the moral as well as the intellectual and economic welfare of 
children. Two hundred years later, when the descendants of 
these Puritan law-makers were fighting for compulsory school 
attendance and child labor laws in Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut, their strongest argument was that children were growing 
up without proper opportunity to develop their moral natures 
and under conditions prejudicial to health. Relatively early, 
the more progressive states began to exclude children from 
occupations regarded as physically or morally dangerous. 
Later, factory inspectors were given authority to remove 
children from such employment as seemed unsuited to their 
strength ; and, finally, the modern state provided that no minor 
should enter upon dangerous employment and that no child 
tinder sixteen should leave school to engage in any sort of 
labor exclusive of home duties and farming, without first sub- 
mitting to a thorough medical examination and securing a 
physician's written assurance of physical fitness for the specific 



18. Philanthropy in form of scholarships is offering a temporary solution 
in New York City. Supra, p. 137. Massachusetts legalizes meals for 
school children at public expense, Acts of 1913, ch. 575. 



238 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

tasks proposed. Several states have now provided for medical 
inspection of school children, usually authorizing school boards 
to establish such inspection at public expense and to require 
all children under their control to submit to periodic examina- 
tions. Massachusetts has taken the logical step in developing 
her system of free and compulsory education by requiring 
medical inspection in all public schools throughout the state. 
With compulsory medical examinations supported by an ad- 
equate system of public school nursing, compulsory vaccina- 
tion, and innoculation against various diseases, and with voca- 
tional restrictions in harmony with the physical conditions of 
the child, the foundation is laid for a compulsory health pro- 
gram of great significance. 

Working papers 

The history of the development of the employment certificate 
is the history of effective child labor legislation. In all the 
states included in this study, fairly representative of the 
American policy in this respect, the same general features ap- 
pear in the evolution of working papers. The simple state- 
ment of school attendance, signed by a teacher and sworn to 
before a justice of the peace, as provided for in Massachu- 
setts in 1838, was not intended to insure to the child the ele- 
ments of an education, nor to keep him out of the factory. It 
was rather a guarantee of immunity to the employer against 
the penalty of the law enacted two years earlier, requiring 
that no child under fifteen should be employed in a factory 
unless he had attended school for at least three months of the 
preceding twelve. Employers of children were not required 
to demand these certificates ; as a matter of fact little attention 
was given them, since the law was not enforced. Provisions 
for school attendance certificates little more effective than 
those of 1838 in Massachusetts were made by other states in 
the early stages of child labor legislation, as in Connecticut in 
1842 and in New York in 1874. In Pennsylvania, not even this 
crude form was provided until 1889. 

In the early certificates of age and schooling the oath was 
regarded as important. Very reluctantly, apparently, legis- 
lators and administrators came to the conclusion that such an 
oath was utterly valueless as evidence of age. Parents who 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 239 

desired to set their young children at work were quite ready- 
to make affidavit that they were of legal age. Even though a 
child was manifestly under age it was not difficult to secure 
an affidavit through a careless or corrupt official. Indeed, in 
some localities a thriving petty business was done by notaries 
and others competent to administer the oath, the objective on 
their part being the small fee which the law allowed. 19 Not 
until the present century did even the more progressive states 
begin to provide for adequate documentary evidence of age in 
the form of birth certificates, religious records, passports, or 
definite school records. 

It is commonly agreed that under ideal conditions the certi- 
ficate of employment should never be placed in the hands of 
the child but should be sent by mail directly to the employer 
from the office of issue; then, on termination of employment, 
it should be returned in the same manner to the office of issue. 
The experience of many years was required to develop this 
standard; that of Massachusetts may be regarded as typical. 
In this state it was found that employers were preserving age 
and schooling certificates after children presenting them had 
left their service. These papers were then assigned to other 
children who applied for work but who had no certificates. 
In 1890 a law was enacted making the certificate the property 
of the child and requiring that on leaving service it be returned 
to him. 20 This did not prove satisfactory. The child might 
return to school, seek a new job, or loaf in idleness until dis- 
covered by some vigilant truant officer. The next step, taken 
in Massachusetts in 1913, in some states earlier, was to require 
the employer to return the certificate, not to the child, but to 
the authorities issuing it. The child then, on securing the 
promise of employment, applies for a new certificate. Between 
jobs, the school authorities know precisely where he is, or at 
least they have data to enable them to know. 

Another valuable safeguard to the working child is the em- 
ployment ticket, now quite commonly demanded. Until very 
recently any child of proper age and literacy might secure 

19. As in Pennsylvania, supra, p. 184, and New York, p. 127. 

20. Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1890, ch. 299. New York still retains this plan. 



240 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

working' papers even if he had no definite employment in view. 
Under such conditions he might be out of school and idle for 
days or even weeks and might in the end secure work for 
which he was not at all fitted. Under ideal conditions the 
applicant for working papers must present' a definite written 
promise of employment in which the character of the work 
proposed is stated. Here again Massachusetts led. As early 
as 1888 she required an employment ticket. This was nearly 
a quarter of a century before the practice became common. 
Now the work proposed must meet the approval of the officials 
empowered to issue the certificate, and in the best systems the 
applicant must submit to a thorough medical examination and 
must be certified as fit to undertake the specific tasks proposed. 
There remains considerable variation in the educational re- 
quirements for working papers. The early laws merely pro- 
vided that the child applying for employment, if under a cer- 
tain age, must give evidence of having attended school for a 
minimum number of months, usually three, of the preceding 
twelve. As compulsory attendance laws developed, steadily 
advancing the minimum period of schooling, the labor laws 
were kept in harmony with them, until in most of the northern 
states all children under fourteen years of age, under sixteen 
if not employed and if the elementary school course or its 
equivalent has not been completed, are required to attend 
school for the full session each year. In certain states, New 
York and Pennsylvania, for example, an examination as to 
ability to read and write was required in addition to the school 
attendance record, the former state still adhering to the plan. 
In Massachusetts, where the importance of the school record 
has been stressed, the minimum attainment in school is such 
knowledge of reading, spelling, and writing as is required for 
the completion of the sixth grade in the local public schools. 
In New York, where the examination is stressed, the school 
record of the applicant for working papers must show that, 
if under fifteen, he has completed the elementary course of 
eight grades or its equivalent. Pennsylvania, long exceedingly 
lax in educational standards for working papers, now requires 
that the applicant, if under sixteen, must have completed the 
work of the sixth grade. In Wisconsin the applicant, if under 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 241 

seventeen, must have completed the sixth grade. 21 In all the 
states here considered the young worker who has not finished 
the equivalent of the eighth grade of the elementary school 
passes automatically into the continuation school, except in 
Connecticut, where he must attend evening school, if one is 
established. 

It will be observed that New York, though maintaining at 
least the form of an examination, requires of the applicant for 
working papers a longer period of schooling than does any 
other state in the group studied. Indeed, her requirement is 
not exceeded by any other state in the Union. 

There is less uniformity in the method of issuing working 
papers than might be expected. In Connecticut the entire 
business is centered in the State Board of Education ; in Massa- 
chusetts and Pennsylvania the local school authorities are 
charged with this duty ; in New York the local board of health 
issues the papers; and in Wisconsin the industrial commission 
or its authorized representative must act. 
/ Were a state to embody in its requirements for working 
papers the highest standards thus far attained in actual prac- 
tice, its children would be permitted to leave school for labor 
^Z when the following conditions had been met: 

1. Certificate to be issued by some centralized authority, 
either by state officials or under close state supervision, to all 
children between fourteen and seventeen who leave school to 
engage in work of any kind. 

2. Issue of such certificates only to those who have com- 
pleted the elementary school course, unless at least fifteen years 
of age. 

3. Adequate documentary proof of age. 

4. A definite, written promise of suitable employment. 

5. A medical examination showing the child to be fit to 
undertake the work proposed. 

6. Certificate to be sent by office of issue to the employer 
by mail and to be returned to the office of issue in the same 
manner on termination of employment. 

7. The child to remain in school until the papers are issued. 

As to vacation permits there is some doubt. Theoretically 
they should not be granted. The child once at work is often 



21. The seventh grade after July 1, 1920, or present record of school attend- 
ance for eight years. 



242 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

reluctant to return to school at the close of the long vacation. 
Yet the practical argument in favor of suitable summer em- 
ployment under present conditions is very strong. Perhaps 
the solution is the all-year school, but until the child's time is 
well occupied throughout the summer, the vacation working 
permit seems to be justified. An adequate system of super- 
vision and inspection supported by a permanent census should 
insure a prompt return of summer workers at the opening of 
school. At present special vacation certificates are granted in 
all of the states of the group included in this study. 

It is not possible to determine from the number of permits 
issued annually the number of children actually employed at 
any one time. Frequently a child will hold two or three posi- 
tions in a single year, for each place requiring a certificate. 22 

At present the tendency is in the direction of more rather 
than of fewer applications for working papers. The rise and 
fall of the demand for child labor in the state of New York, 
perhaps typical for the country at large, during the past 
twenty years is graphically shown in the following diagram. 



au 










































70 


















































































60 


















































































30 


















































































■AO 


















































































30 


















































































20 


















































































10 


















































































n 











































8 



8 



Diagram 2. Showing employment certificates issued by boards of 
health in the state of New York, 1900-1920. Does not include 
certificates issued for summer vacation only. 



22. For example, Paul Houghton of Lancaster, Pa., between Feb. 4, 1920, 
and Feb. 16, 1921, applied for and received eleven certificates. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 243 

Direct state enforcement of attendance and labor regulations 
Very naturally local government was emphasized by English- 
men in America. All functions that did not require the re- 
sources and authority of the general government were jealous- 
ly guarded by the community. The Massachusetts Act of 1642, 
requiring the education of all children in reading and in- 
dustry, was administered by the selectmen of the several 
towns. Schools, established in accordance with later statutes, 
were under the direction and control of committees. Presently 
well organized state school systems were developed, but with 
large responsibility and power vested in local units. When, 
in the latter half of the nineteenth century, state legislatures 
began to enact compulsory attendance laws, enforcement was 
quite naturally entrusted to local authorities. To local officials, 
also, was given the responsibility of enforcing the early child 
labor laws. 

For various reasons the administration of school attendance 
and child labor requirements has gradually been differentiated 
until at present the latter are usually supervised and enforced 
by state agents under a central department, board, or bureau 
of the state government, while the former continue, with few 
exceptions, under local control. All available evidence in- 
dicates that, defective as the enforcement of child labor laws 
often is, vastly better results are obtained in this field by state 
agents than in the enforcement of attendance by local author- 
ities, exception being made of the larger cities where, under 
highly organized administrative machinery, attendance laws 
are proving to be the best measures for keeping children out 
of illegal labor. 

In the inauguration of state enforcement of child labor laws 
leadership again falls to Massachusetts. The law of 1866 
authorized the governor to prevent the illegal employment of 
children through the state constabulary. 23 General H. K. 
Oliver, first charged with this duty, was able to accomplish 
little, yet his reports locate some of the problems of child labor, 
and his work and that of his successors throughout the state 
prepared the way for factory inspection inaugurated in 1877. 

23. For law arid discussion, supra, p. 57f. 



244 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Connecticut was a close second to Massachusetts in beginning 
a program of state enforcement. Her child labor law of 1869 
directed the state board of education to carry out the pro- 
visions of the act and to this end authorized the appointment 
of an agent responsible to the board and vested with the 
necessary power to secure enforcement. 24 Gradually the duties 
of the board of education have been increased and its powers 
extended until state control of young children in school and 
in employment is more complete in Connecticut than elsewhere 
in the United States. 

Of the other states included in this study, Pennsylvania 
enacted her first child labor law in 1848, providing for state 
enforcing officers forty-one years later; Wisconsin, enacting 
her first measure to restrict the employment of children in 
1877, provided in a limited way for state enforcement in 1885 ; 
New York secured her first protective legislation in 1886, at 
once establishing a system of factory inspection with state- 
wide jurisdiction. In all the states in the group, elaborate 
systems of state enforcement of child labor regulations are 
now in operation and, compared with the enforcement of the 
school attendance laws, fairly satisfactory results are obtained. 
It is not difficult to see why the administration of school 
attendance laws remained almost exclusively in the hands of 
local officials while more and more the state has concerned it- 
self with those regulations more directly affecting labor. It 
has been shown that in the early colonial period children were 
under the same means of control, both as to literary education 
and industry. Legislators of the early nineteenth century ap- 
parently assumed that children not employed in factories 
would be kept in school by their parents and, wishing to as- 
sure the factory child the tools of learning, provided that he 
might not be employed unless he had first fulfilled the attend- 
ance requirements. Very naturally, enforcement was left to 
local communities, usually to school officials, who fairly repre- 
sented those most intimately connected with the child's wel- 




24. Law and discussion, supra, p. 94f. Two men, serving successively as 
agents of the board, bring the record down to the present decade; Henry 
M. Cleveland occupying the position in the years 1869-1871, Giles Potter 
in the years 1872-1912. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 245 

fare. Forces the operation of which had not been foreseen, 
poverty, greed, indifference, parents' traditional rights in 
children, rendered those laws inoperative. In Massachusetts 
the State Board of Education sought to secure the enforce- 
ment of the attendance requirements at the hands of state 
officials, but since education had been confided to local com- 
munities for two centuries, and since no sufficiently powerful 
social forces demanded a departure from former customs, no 
action was taken. When labor began to be able to express 
itself, it demanded that young children be excluded from fac- 
tories under state authority, but, less sensitive as to education, 
made no direct demands as to school attendance. Members of 
the labor party were elected to the law-making body ; political 
leaders committed themselves to the labor program ; the public 
attitude towards the employer changed; the legislature grew 
sensitive to the demand that the laws should operate, even 
against the immediate financial interests of manufacturers ; and 
state authority was invoked to administer the child labor laws. 
At first there was merely a weak, ineffectual method of factory 
visitation, later to develop into the vigorous system of control 
now in operation. 

Partly by imitation, partly through the natural order of de- 
velopment, the methods of controlling the labor and school 
attendance of children in Massachusetts came to prevail in 
other states. Connecticut, as has been shown, committed her- 
self to a large degree of state administration in respect to both. 
Other states, like Massachusetts, early adjusting their executive 
machinery for the enforcement of child labor laws, are but 
slowly proceeding in the direction of state control of education. 

An expedient quite commonly adopted in the various states, 
and pointing toward state supervision of attendance laws, is 
that of giving the state department of education authority to 
withhold from any community not complying with the regula- 
tions a portion of the state funds. This means of penalizing 
the rebellious or indifferent community was adopted in Massa- 
chusetts in 1865. In most states it is a potential means of 
discipline seldom or never exercised. Its real effectiveness has 
been demonstrated in New York, however, where for many 
years this means of penalizing recalcitrant school districts has 



246 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

been employed with satisfactory results. 25 Here a force of 
state school inspectors keeps the state department in fairly 
close touch with the field at large. 

Pennsylvania, in her law of 1915, took a step toward state 
control decidedly in advance of the half-hearted method of 
withholding state funds. In case any district neglects to en- 
force the attendance requirements the state board of education 
is authorized to appoint attendance officers in the delinquent 
district and bring the law into operation; the salary of such 
officers and all expenses incurred in enforcement being paid 
by the state, charged against the district, and deducted from 
the district's share of the state school funds. 26 

Direct state aid to education, now supplemented under special 
legislation by Federal aid, is developing, as a necessary ac- 
companiment, state inspectorial and supervisory service. It 
is only a question of time until the matter of attendance will 
be receiving the attention of such special officers, the old, dis- 
credited local machinery will either be abandoned or, more 
likely, vitalized by state supervision and cooperation, and the 
great waste of non-attendance will be eliminated. 

Federal cooperation 

That national authority is essential to an effective campaign 
against child labor and in support of universal education has 
long been apparent. States with the most advanced standards 
share boundaries with those notoriously indifferent to the best 
interests of children. Entire sections of the country have been 
reluctant to remove young children from productive employ- 
ment. The educational and higher industrial opportunities of 
a child have been determined far too completely by the locality 
in which he chanced to be born. To secure a degree of uniform- 
ity in opportunity and in standards, Federal interference has 
come to be regarded as a necessary and logical step. 

Organized labor is the agency to which, more than to any 
other, credit must be given for stimulating national interest 
in the fight against child labor. In its first constitution the 
American Federation of Labor declared itself in favor of the 



25. Supra, p. 168. 

26. Laws of 1915, No. 177. Pennsylvania is now establishing state super- 
vision of attendance and has several inspectors in the field. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 247 

complete abolition of the employment of children under four- 
teen years of age. 27 Consistently this organization has ad- 
vocated such uniform action among the states, supported by 
Federal amendment, if necessary, as would insure adequate 
protection to women and children everywhere. 28 It has entered 
actively into national as well as state campaigns having 
for their aim more favorable educational and industrial 
conditions. 29 

Cooperating Math organized labor, often guiding its forces, 
always affording the benefit of scientific foundation, has been 
a considerable group of students of practical philanthropy and 
social economics. By means of books, lectures, and popular or 
semi-popular magazine articles, public opinion was led to the 
conclusion that child labor and universal education were 
national problems requiring the supervision and general con- 
trol of the Federal government. Every university and college 
was enlisted in the work of propaganda; courses were organ- 
ized, investigations were put under way, University settlements 
were established, all tending to create a permanent interest 
among educated people in the modern problems of child wel- 
fare and the function of government in their solution. 30 
Tangible evidence of the effectiveness of this volunteer work 
is seen, also, in the Federal Children's Bureau, established as 
a bureau in the Department of Labor in 1912, and since then 
an effective official agency in the campaign in behalf of 
children and women. 31 



27. American Federation of Labor, 1919, p. 170. This plank, adopted in 
1881, was opposed by a considerable element on the grounds that its en- 
forcement would be an interference with individual rights. Proceedings, 
1881, p. 3. 

28. E. g., Proceedings American Federation of Labor, 1889, p. 23; 1890, 
p. 40; 1910, p. 224. 

29. As early as 1887 this organization was demanding that the teaching of 
government, Americanization, be included in the compulsory education 
program. Ibid., 1887, p. 30; 1888, p. 27. 

30. Men and women to the number of a score or more attained nation-wide 
prominence as leaders in these practical studies and in field work; among 
them, Owen E. Lovejoy, secretary since 1907 of the National Child Labor 
Committee, Samuel McCune Lindsay, first secretary of that organization, 
Florence Kelley, active in the Consumers' League, and Julia Lathrop, now 
Chief of the Federal Children's Bureau, have been outstanding figures. 

31. Bureau in Dpt. of Commerce and Labor, 1912; transferred to Dpt. of 
Labor, 1913. 



248 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOE 

The first serious consideration given child labor in the 
United States Congress was in 1907, when the Beveridge- 
Parsons bill was under discussion. This bill was not permitted 
to come to a vote in either House, owing to a wide-spread con- 
viction that it was unconstitutional. 32 In 1915 a bill similar 
in character passed the House of Representatives but did not 
reach a vote in the Senate. 33 The following year this measure, 
then known as the Keating-Owen Bill, passed both Houses by 
large majorities, and went into effect September 1, 1917. 34 

This law was permitted to operate for only nine months, but 
during that time its effectiveness was demonstrated in widely 
separated sections of the country. 35 It was declared uncon- 
stitutional in the Federal Court of the Western District of 
North Carolina, Judge Boyd presiding, and on June 3, 1918, 
the decision was affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, 
four of the nine justices dissenting. 36 

The Keating-Owen law was based upon the power of Con- 
gress to regulate commerce and prohibited interstate commerce 
in articles in the production of which the labor of children 
had entered. A new law, based upon the power of Congress 
to tax, was enacted, going into operation on April 25, 1919. 
On August 19 of that year, this measure was declared uncon- 
stitutional in the same court that passed upon its predecessor. 
The case has not, at this writing, reached the Supreme Court, 
and pending its decision the law is in operation throughout 
the country. 

Whether or not the present attempt of the Federal govern- 
ment to control the labor of children is successful, is of rela- 
tively small consequence. The significant point is that the 
American people are determined that the abuses of child labor 
are to cease and that the national government must cooperate 
with the progressive states in fixing standards and enforcing 
requirements. If constitutional limitations, fixed a century 

32. Monroe, Cyclopedia of Education, "Child Labor." 

33. The Palmer-Owen Bill. 

34. See Thomas I. Parkinson, "A Brief for the Keating-Owen Bill," Child 
Labor Bulletin, February, 1916. 

35. Child Labor Bulletin, Feb., 1918, p. 208; Nov., 1918, p. 160. 

36. Ibid. 




SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 249 

and a quarter ago, interfere with the program, an amendment 
will clear away the obstructions. 

Though the Federal government has not entered actively 
into the campaign for universal compulsory education, it has 
given encouragement through such measures as the Smith- 
Hughes law. Federal aid, available under certain conditions, 
is serving to stimulate the creation of vocational and con- 
tinuation schools, attendance upon which is usually compul- 
sory within certain age limits. 37 For example, Iowa is es- 
tablishing continuation schools compulsory upon communities 
where fifteen or more children are employed on certificate, and 
requiring attendance upon them. This advanced step on the 
part of a state always conservative in school legislation was 
taken in response to the invitation to share in the Smith- 
Hughes funds. 38 It seems probable that Congress will present- 
ly be vested with such power as will enable it to establish 
minimum educational standards throughout the Union, and to 
prevent the general employment of children until they are at 
least fourteen years of age. 

Penalties 

The community failing to support a school in accordance 
with the provisions of the Massachusetts legislation of 1647 
was to be mulcted to the extent of five English pounds. This 
was a heavy penalty, for the total salary of a professional 
schoolmaster was only five or six times that amount. The 
modern survival of this penalty is found in the common 
practice of withholding from a district that fails to comply 
with attendance or other school requirements a part or all of 
the general state funds. 39 

It was provided, also, in the early Colonial legislation, that 
officials failing to enforce the school laws might be fined ac- 
cording to the discretion of the court. The principle of this 

37. Third An. Bpt. Fed. Board for Voe. Ed., p. 21. 

38. Laws of Iowa, 1919, chs. 34, 139. Missouri is establishing continuation 
schools and is not only requiring the attendance of children under sixteen, 
lawfully employed, but includes all under eighteen, whether employed or 
not, if they have not completed the elementary school course and are not in 
attendance upon any other school. Laws of Missouri, 1919, amending Art. 
6, ch. 106, of the statutes. 

39. For example, New York and Pennsylvania, supra, pp. 168, 193. 



250 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

penalty very frequently survives in modern legislation, though 
there is little evidence of its application. 40 

Penalties for the violation of modern attendance laws never 
fall upon the child, except that in case of incorrigibility he 
may be committed to a school suited to his needs. Yet in the 
earlier nineteenth century legislation, truant children might 
be fined or even committed to prison. 41 

In general, school attendance laws have always carried light- 
er penalties than have those regulating the labor of children. 
There is a well-marked tendency also to give a delinquent 
parent every opportunity to return his child to school and thus 
avoid the penalty. 42 Experience has shown that a relatively 
small fine, with a jail sentence at the option of the court, will 
serve, in most cases, to insure the cooperation of parents in 
keeping children in school. A large fine is a distinct handicap, 
as few judges will impose it upon parents of small means. 

Until well toward the close of the nineteenth century, em- 
ployers were rather carefully protected from the penalties of 
child labor laws. Not only was authority to prosecute left to 
officials not likely to have any vital interest in enforcement, 43 
but it was frequently required that the prosecution prove that 
the violation had been "willfully and knowingly" committed. 44 

In attempts to encourage enforcement some of the early laws 
offered a portion of the penalties recovered to the prosecutor. 45 
In at least one instance it was provided that half of the penalty 
recovered should go to the child illegally employed. 46 

Of the states included in this study, Pennsylvania offers 



40. Wisconsin provides that any teacher or school officer failing to make 
the required reports on attendance is liable to a fine not to exceed twenty- 
five dollars, half the sum recovered going to the person bringing action, 
half to the district. Laws of Wis., 1907. 

41. Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1850, ch. 294; 1852, eh. 283. Conn. Bev. 
Statutes, 1866, ch. 4. 

42. The first compulsory attendance law of Pennsylvania, 1895, provided 
for a fine upon delinquent parents of a sum not to exceed two dollars, but 
made provision for appeal and provided, further, that before such fine was 
imposed the offending parent should be notified of his liability in writing 
and given opportunity to comply with the law. Laws of Penn., 1895, No. 53. 

43. Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1842, ch. 60. New YorTc Laws, 1896, ch. 384. 

44. New YorTc Laws, 1886, ch. 409. 

45. Mass. Acts and Besolves, 1842, ch. 60. Penn. Laws, 1849, No. 415. 

46. Penn. Laws, 1848, No. 227. 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 251 

mildest treatment to parents violating the attendance law, the 
penalty for the first offense being a fine of not over two dol- 
lars, with a maximum of five dollars for each subsequent of- 
fense. A jail sentence of not over five days is provided in 
case of failure to pay the fine. Connecticut and Massachusetts 
fix no minimum penalty, but the maximum in the former is 
five dollars, in the latter twenty dollars. In New York a first 
offense is punishable by a fine of five dollars or a jail sentence 
of five days, with a fine of not over fifty dollars or a jail 
sentence of not over thirty days, or both fine and imprison- 
ment, for each subsequent offense. The Wisconsin law fixes 
as the penalty a fine of not less than five dollars nor more 
than fifty dollars, with costs, or imprisonment for not over 
three months, or both fine and imprisonment. 

For violation of the child labor laws, New York and Massa- 
chusetts provide the most drastic penalties. In New York any 
person employing a child in violation of the law may be fined 
for the first offense not less than twenty-five nor more than 
fifty dollars and for subsequent offenses not less than fifty nor 
more than two hundred dollars. In Massachusetts no minimum 
penalty is fixed, but the fine may be as high as three hundred 
dollars, or, if the court elects, the offender may be sent to jail 
for not over six months, or there may be both fine and imprison- 
ment. For each day of illegal employment after notice has 
been given, the offender is liable to a fine of not less than 
twenty nor more than one hundred dollars. 

There is a tendency to fix penalties with widely separate 
minima and maxima, leaving large discretionary powers to the 
courts. As juvenile and children's courts develop, still larger 
discretionary powers may be expected, the objective being the 
education of both parents and children rather than their 
punishment. 

Decrease in illiteracy 

Unfortunately little reliable material is available upon which 
conclusions as to the actual literacy of the population of the 
several states may be based. The most reliable sources are 
the several Federal censuses, but these leave much to be de- 
sired. The first census attempting to gather information on 
this point is that of 1870. A comparison of the proportion of 



252 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

illiteracy reported for that year and for the year 1910 is pre- 
sented below. 

TABLE II 

Illiteracy in the United States and in the five states included in this study 
in the years 1870*7 and 1910*8 



Total population 



United States 

Connecticut 

Massachusetts 

New York 

Pennsylvania 

Wisconsin 



1870 
38,558,371 
537,454 
1,457,351 
4,382,759 
3,521,951 
1,054,670 



1910 
91,972,266 
1,114,756 
3,366,416 
9,113,614 
7,665,111 
2,333,860 



Per cent of illiteracy 



1870 

14.6*9 

5.5 
6.7 
5.5 
6.3 

5.2 



1910 
7.7 
6.0 
5.2 
5.5 
5.9 
3.2 



It will be observed that in the forty years between the 
censuses compared, the proportion of illiteracy among persons 
ten years of age and over in the United States as a whole has 
been reduced practically one-half. With the single exception 
of Wisconsin, there has been little change in any of the states 
included in this study. These states have all received large 
numbers of immigrants during this period, many of whom have 
been unable to read and write in any language. While it is 
certain that the relatively high per cent of illiteracy now pre- 
vailing in these states cannot be laid entirely to the immigra- 
tion of illiterate adults, Table III suggests the significance of 
this element. 

TABLE III 

Tartial classification of illiterates ten years of age and over in the group of 
states included in this study, based on census of 1910 



All Classes Native Parentage 
Illiterate Per cent Illiterate Per cent 



Foreign Born Whites 
Illiterate Per cent 



Connecticut 


53,665 


6.0 


1,707 


0.5 


49,202 


15.4 


Massachusetts 


141,541 


5.2 


3,428 


0.4 


129,412 


17.7 


New York 


406,020 


5.5 


21,292 


0.8 


362,025 


13.7 


Pennsylvania 


354,290 


5.9 


46,054 


1.4 


279,668 


20.1 


Wisconsin 


57,769 


3.2 


3,223 


0.6 


43,662 


8.7 



Since data as to literacy are based upon answers given orally 
to the enumerators and not upon any test or other evidence, 
it is safe to assume that the Federal census gives a generous 
interpretation of existing conditions. The reports of the Sur- 



47. Compendium of the Ninth Census, pp. 8 and 456. 

48. Abstract of the Thirteenth Census, p. 245. 

49. Probably incorrect. Census of 1880 reports total illiteracy of 17 per 
cent. 






SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 



253 



geon General relative to the literacy of the men coming into 
the army under the selective draft indicate that a much larger 
proportion of the population than that shown by the census 
is unable to make intelligent use of the printed or written 
page. It is clear that, even in the most progressive states, the 
battle against illiteracy is not yet won. 

Even with the imperfect data available, it can be shown that 
illiteracy in the states considered has not decreased at such a 
rate as to make it comparable, inversely, with the increase in 
school attendance. It is to be noted, however, that even in 
these progressive states a large proportion of the children and 
youth of school age is not under any kind of instruction. 



TABLE IV 

Showing average percentage of population of usual school age, five to 
eighteen, reported in attendance at periods indicated, with illiteracy of 
population ten years of age and upward. Based upon census returns and 
reports of U. S. Bureau of Education 





1870 


1880 


1890 


1900 


1910 


1915 




© 




© 




© 




<s 




a> 




© 




o 




o 




© 




3 




t> 




© 







>» 


a 


t-, 


PI 


>> 


PI 


s*> 


pi 


>» 


pi 




eS 


© 


c3 


© 


83 


© 


efi 


o 


03 


o 


e3 


DIVISION 


H3 
© 


a> 


PI 
© 


e3 
© 


13 

Pi 



S 


T3 

PI 
a> 
+3 


a 

H 


p) 
© 

4J 


03 

© 


T3 

PI 
© 








-*i 




+a 




-*a 




■4J 








< 


M 


< 


s 


< 


M 


<1 


s 


< 


M 


< 


Connecticut 


45.7 


5.5 


47.2 


5.7 


47.6 


5.2 


53.5 


5.9 


57.2 


6.0 


63.9 


Massachusetts 


53.6 


6.7 


54.5 


6.5 


53.4 


6.2 


58.7 


5.9 


58.4 


5.2 


61.2 


New York 


39.1 


5.5 


42.8 


5.5 


43.6 


5.5 


49.2 


5.5 


53.5 


5.5 


56.4 


Pennsylvania 


51.2 


6.3 


47.7 


7.1 


46.5 


6.7 


50.8 


6.1 


53.2 


5.9 


57.1 


Wisconsin 


36.7 


5.2 


38.4 


5.8 


39.7 


6.7 


50.4 


4.7 


50. 


3.2 


54.1 



The change in attendance during the period 1870-1915 is 
graphically indicated by Diagram III, page 254. There would 
be little variation in a curve showing the decrease of illiteracy 
during the same period in this particular group of states. 

Continuation or part time schools 

No phase of recent educational development is more striking 
than this. The part-time school is, of course, an ancient in- 
stitution employed in Germany and England, and later in 
certain industrial centers in America, to give the working child 
a meager training in the rudiments. To-day the part-time 
school is concerned with the child who has already mastered 
the tool subjects, has passed well into adolescence, and is leav- 



254 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 



65 r-r- 














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z 




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.V J 






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T7 






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a 5 d? 



Diagram 3. The percentage of school population between ages five 
and eighteen actually in attendance at periods indicated: 1, Con- 
necticut; 2, Massachusetts; 3, New York; 4, Pennsylvania; 5, 
Wisconsin. 

ing school for remunerative employment or perhaps to learn 
a trade. 

It is the purpose of the modern part-time school to keep the 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 



255 



youth under educational influences until he has almost reached 
maturity and has become fairly established in habits of thought 
and action. The courses of study are designed to appeal to his 
vocational interests so that from this center there may be 
built up in the young citizen those ideals which society has 
found most imperative. 

' Massachusetts has the honor of being the first American 
state seriously to consider the industrial needs of her youth, 50 
but less conservative Wisconsin put in operation the first com- 
pulsory part-time or continuation day-schools in the United 
States. After observing this experiment for four years Penn- 
sylvania, in 1915 made provision for a state system of com- 
pulsory schools, to be followed soon by other states until in 



(J. 

z\ 

20 
19 

ia 

17 
16 
13 
14 
13 
12 
II 
10 
9 

a 




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7 
6 
5 
A 
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! 






















! 1 


5 1 


! I 


• ^ 


i u 


5 2 


5 £ 


. a 
2 c 




5 c 


\ 1 



Diagram 4. The legal establishment of 
state systems of part-time or continua- 
tion schools -with compulsory attendance 
of working children. 



50. Supra, p. 76ff. 



256 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

1920 no fewer than twenty-one states have made legal pro- 
vision for some sort of part-time school attendance upon which 
is compulsory for certain adolescents not receiving instruction 
in full time schools. The following diagram indicates the 
rapid development of this means of education during the clos- 
ing years of the decade. 

America has borrowed freely from the German states in the 
development of Ijer ideals of continuation education. There 
is a decided tendency, however, to organize these schools as 
an integral part of the public school system, the local boards 
of education being made responsible for their organization and 
management. 51 Usually there is an advisory board represent- 
ing the local trades and industries, either appointed by the 
local board of education or closely connected with it by other 
relations. The state, in all the systems examined, gives gener- 
ous aid and the Smith-Hughes funds are made available when 
requirements are met. The states retain a considerable degree 
of control over these schools, indicating a movement towards 
more centralized administration. Outside the larger cities of 
"Wisconsin the continuation schools are so new that standards 
are not yet well established. The classes usually meet in rooms 
not well adapted to the purposes of instruction, and equipment 
for industrial work is often lacking. With the further develop- 
ment of the junior high school more adequate provision will 
doubtless be made for this type of education. 

Outlook 

The supervision and control of the labor and education of 
children in these five states must not be regarded as typical 
for the United States as a whole, but rather as indicative of 
the national attitude. It may reasonably be expected that the 
standards already attained by this group of states will be 
reached by the most backward groups in a relatively short 
time. In none of these states may a child engage in remunera- 
tive employment, except it be in agriculture or in domestic 
service, until he is fourteen years of age. In all, he must re- 



51. In Wisconsin there has been heated discussion over the relative merits of 
single and dual boards of control. Here industrial education, including 
part-time education, has been kept more distinctly separate from the regular 
public schools than elsewhere. Supra, p. 220ff. 



\ 



SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 257 

main in school until he is sixteen unless legally employed; in 
one state in the group, Wisconsin, the period of compulsory 
schooling is extended to seventeen; in another, New York, it 
is eighteen. In four of the five states the child who leaves the 
full-time school to go to work must remain under educational 
influences until at least sixteen, even though regularly em- 
ployed, attendance upon part-time schools being compulsory. 
In addition to a minimum age for employment, all of these 
states have established certain minimum educational stand- 
ards, one, New York, forbidding the employment of any child 
under fifteen unless he has completed the elementary school 
course. 

It appears that in the near future all children of normal 
ability will be required to complete a school course of at least 
eight years before going to work, and that after entering upon 
employment they will be required to attend continuation 
schools for two or three years longer. Since the upper years 
of the present elementary course are giving way to secondary 
work, it is to be expected that practically all children will 
presently have the advantage of at least two years of secondary 
schooling before entering upon regular employment and the 
more highly specialized work of the part-time school. 

In certain portions of the country where standards of educa- 
tion and employment have been notably low, the realization 
of this program might appear remote, but since the Federal 
government is definitely committed to a policy of interference 
with the employment of young children and to the support of 
special types of education, the process of leveling up to the 
progressive standards developed by the more favored group 
of states will doubtless be rapid. That the movement to pro- 
tect children and insure for them a longer period of educa- 
tion of a type adapted to their industrial needs, is not confined 
in the United States is evidenced by the English Education 
Act of 1918, worked out while the country was still engaged in 
bitter war. 52 That it is international in scope may be proven 
by the "Draft Convention" of the International Labor Con- 
ference of the League of Nations. 53 



52. See I. L. Kandel, Education in Great Britain and Ireland, 1919. 

53. The American Child, Nov., 1919, p. 186ff. 



258 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

Prom the "Statute of Labourers" of Edward III to the 
Keating-Owens act there may be traced the relatively steady 
development of an ideal. It seems a far stretch from the act 
of Henry IV. in the year 1405, providing that attendance at 
school may exempt a child from the penalties of the law re- 
quiring all children of the non-landholding classes to be regu- 
larly employed, to the modern provisions that all children 
must remain under educational influences until physical ma- 
turity is reached. But the way is marked very definitely by 
the great statutes of Henry and Elizabeth, by the Massachu- 
setts law of 1642, by the early attempts of the states to control 
the labor of children, and by the epoch-making battles of the 
nineteenth century in support of free schools with compulsory 
attendance thereon. In this period the conception of govern- 
ment has changed utterly among English speaking people ; 
ideals as to the child's relations to industry and to education 
have almost exactly reversed themselves; yet there remains 
constant the principle that the welfare of the state demands 
a citizenship with established habits of industry and thrift; 
that it is the duty of the state to require the formation of 
such habits; and that to secure these ends a certain degree 
of public control of young children in regard to their labor 
and training is essential. 

The early English laws were enacted by the property owners 
for the control of the laboring class only just emerging from 
serfdom. Much of the modern legislation in behalf of children 
has been forced upon the employer by enfranchised labor ren- 
dered independent or at least formidably influential through 
organization. The instrument once employed by autocracy to 
control a subordinate class now, in the hands of democracy, 
is serving to secure to all children equality of opportunity in 
the struggle for industrial and intellectual freedom. 



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260 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

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262 SCHOOL ATTENDANCE AND CHILD LABOR 

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